


Wild Truths

by Gabby374



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Hogwarts First Year
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:56:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 46,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23420560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gabby374/pseuds/Gabby374
Summary: [Year 1] Mila Rosier, ward of Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy, starts her Hogwart's journey along with Draco and the famous Harry Potter. It is time to  make friends, enemies, reveal secrets, learn and join a new adventure.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy & Lucius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy & Original Female Character(s), Harry Potter & Original Female Character(s), Hermione Granger & Original Female Character(s), Lucius Malfoy & Original Female Character(s), Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa Black Malfoy, Narcissa Black Malfoy & Original Female Character(s), Ron Weasley & Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo, hope you enjoy the story. I plan to use the book material for most part and see where the story goes. I'm very excited to start this journey and if you like it be sure to leave a like and comment, they're greatly appreciated. English is not my first language and I have no beta so there might be few errors, especially as I write mostly at nights. If you see any mistakes be sure to let me know x

Mila followed closely behind Draco and Narcissa as they walked through the streets in Diagon Alley. She couldn’t contain the wild smile that played on her lips while her hand tightly clutched the most important letter she had ever received in her pocket. It was the letter she was eagerly waiting for the last few months, driving everyone up the wall with her constant glances to the window and inability to talk about any other topic other than what she would do when she got to Hogwarts. The letter in simple, cursive writing wrote:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin,First Class, Grand Sorc.,Chf.Warlock, Supreme Mugwump ,International Conded. Of Wizards)

Dear Ms Rosier,

We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. 

Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress.

  
  


Along with the letter of acceptance, there was a list of required materials included, which Mila gave to Narcissa to handle, but not before memorising all the details. Necessities like the books and equipment were already ordered and to be delivered to the Manor, but it was finally the time to get her wand and get measured for the uniform. 

They had arrived at ‘Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382BC’. Narcissa wasted no time to push the door inside. The tinkling bell rang somewhere in the store as they entered the tiny place. 

“Good afternoon,” Mr Ollivander greeted the small family as he emerged from the corner of stacked wands. “Ah, the Malfoys and Miss Rosier how wonderful, I have been waiting for ye,” He continued with a warm smile, adding to Mila’s excitement. The whole place felt as if it was vibrating from magical presence. 

“Good afternoon, Mr Ollivander. Always a pleasure,” Narcissa replied politely and nodded towards Draco to go ahead. 

Draco, of course, wasted no time and approached the older man, his demeanour demanding attention.

“I’m here to get my wand,” He expressed loudly as his eyes darted between the different boxes. Mr.Ollivander inspected him and nodded lightly.

“Of course you are, young sir, and I think I have the perfect wand in mind for you,” With that, the man disappeared into the back of the store to retrieve it. 

Mila stepped a little closer and rose on her tiptoes to see better just as Mr.Ollivander returned with a box. She felt Narcissa’s hand rest on her shoulder, but she couldn’t pull her eyes away from Draco, especially when his hand touched the sleek wood. He flicked his wrist effortlessly and a stream of red and gold sparks flew shot out from the end. 

“Excellent!” Mr Ollivander exclaimed. “This is Hawthorn wood with unicorn hair,10 inches and Reasonably springy. It will serve you well, young sir.” 

Draco smiled and nodded before stepping back with his new wand. His eyes met with Mila’s and he flashed her a smirk just as Narcissa nudged her. Mila straightened up and raised her head as she approached the man.

“Miss Rosier, it’s a pleasure to see you, you look just like your parents when they came here for the first time, they were just as excited as you. Let’s try this one,” Mr Ollivander pulled out one wand from under the counter and passed it to her.

“Sure, thank you,” She clenched the wand in her grip and flicked it. Instead of red flares coming out of the wand, the few papers that were lying on the counter lit up in flame. Mila’s heart skipped a beat as she took a step back in fright.

“Merlin! I’m so sorry!” She gasped out, her hands instinctively going up to her mouth as guilt flooded her. 

“No worries dear, that’s definitely not your wand,” Mr Ollivander chuckled as he got rid of the flames with his own wand. Mila put the wand back and nervously glanced at Narcissa while Mr Ollivander walked off to get another wand. 

“Don’t fret, things like these happen,” Narcissa commented lightly while Draco snickered to himself. She rolled her eyes at him, but a small smile reappeared on her face.

“Let’s try this one,” Mr Olliver returned with another wand. Sending a small prayer, Mila took a hold of the wand. A gentle, warm feeling overcame her as she held the wand. Lightly flicking the wand, the same sparks came out from her wand, just as it did for Draco when he got his own.

“Marvellous! This is Chestnut wood with a phoenix feather core, 13 inches and unyielding flexibility. This is a very interesting wand Ms Rosier, we can expect great things from you, “

“Thank you sir,” She nodded and smiled gratefully. 

Narcissa paid for their wands and with a wave of goodbye they were off. By the time they entered ‘Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions’ and got to stand on the stool for measurements, Mila was positively starved. 

“I will head to Lucius and see about the possibility of getting a pet. Once ye are finished with the robes, meet us at ‘Rosa Lee Teabag’. Behave yourselves and do not forget you two are representing the family name,” Narcissa explained, emphasizing the end. 

“Of course,” They both muttered in sync and watched her leave.

“We’re still going to ‘Sugarplum’s’ right?” Mila asked quietly as Draco stood up on a footstool for the witch to start measuring him.

“Of course we are, we’ll go to ‘Broomstix’ too, father won’t mind too much if we slip away for a few moments.” Draco responded, raising his arms.

“This way dearie, we’ll get a start on you too,” Another, older looking woman approached her and pointed to the stall behind an open curtain. 

“Be right back,” Mila muttered to Draco and followed the woman into the stall. She zoned out most of the procedure, but her interest peaked again when she heard Draco speak.

“Hullo, Hogwarts too?” 

“Yes,” Responded a quiet, timid voice.

“I’m waiting for my sister to finish up. My mother and father are up the street looking for our pets. Then we are going to look at racing brooms. I don’t see why first-years can’t have their own. I think I’ll bully my father into getting us two and we’ll smuggle them in somehow. Have you got your own broom?” Draco continued to speak just as Mila started to put back on the outer layers of her clothes. 

“No,” Responded the boy.

“Play Quidditch at all?”

“No,”

“Thank you very much,” Mila thanked the lady and yanked the curtain back to meet back with Draco.

“I do - Father says it’s a crime if I’m not picked to play for my house, which I must say I agree. Kno-” 

“Was that before or after I hit you off the broom into the ground?” Mila snickered, cutting him off in mid-sentence. She noticed the boy smile in amusement as well just as Draco rolled his eyes.

“I’m Mila, this here is Draco, what’s your name?” Mila introduced herself and held a hand out for him to shake. 

“I’m Harry,” The boy, Harry, shook her hand back and glanced between her and Draco.

“Look at -” Draco was once again interrupted, this time by the woman measuring him.

“That’s you done too dear, your uniforms were already paid for and will be sent to your household within the next day.” The woman explained, and Mila was entirely grateful to have an excuse to leave. She had a feeling Draco was about to say something that might have not been nice. 

“Let’s go Draco, we got places to be,” Mila grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the door. She watched him and Harry share another look for a moment.

“Well, I’ll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose,” Draco sneered at him. Mila offered a wave and a quiet “See you later, Harry.” 

By the time they arrived to meet Narcissa and Lucius, the sun was setting. Mila spotted them sitting down in a corner outside beside the entrance, enjoying the last spells of sun while sipping some tea. Mila and Draco half raced the rest of the way towards the table before slowing down and politely sitting down opposite each other. A moment later, two cups of tea and a tray of delicacies were brought out by the worker.

“Last time I checked, robe fitting does not take two hours,” Lucius drawled out lazily as he took out his pocket watch and pointed it to them.

“What can I say, girl’s robes take foreverrr,” Mila muttered out the lie distractedly as she piled her plate with chocolate desserts.

“Does it now?” Lucius raised a single eyebrow in question, not fully buying it. Narcissa in the meantime pulled the almost empty cup of tea closer to her lips to hide the small smile.

“Yup,” Mila responded before shoving the dessert into her mouth. 

“Mila, eat like a lady,” Narcissa commented watching her. Draco was also busy eating his portion but at least he was eating appropriately.

“Hungry,” Mila mumbled through her fingers as she attempted to swallow as much food as she could.

“You were told to eat your breakfast in the morning. As I remember correctly, you did not. Eat properly.” Lucius pointed out, his voice becoming sharper. 

“Sorry sir,” Mila apologised and drank her tea slower than she ate. To her surprise Draco didn’t have any comment to add, he just kept his eyes on his tea and remained silent. 

Soon they were finished and rose to their last destination, to get their pets. Since Mila demanded a cat while Draco insisted on an owl, the family split to get it over with sooner. Mila followed Lucius towards ‘Magical Menagerie’ while Narcissa and Draco went to ‘Eeylops Owl Emporium’.

“Now don’t even think about getting something that sheds, I do not wish to see any hairs in the manor.” Lucius said, mild disgust coating his voice as he looked through the cages with mild interest.

“Okay,” Mila mumbled to herself quietly as she scanned through the cages as well. A lot of them looked either something Lucius would despise or old. She glanced towards one of the cages where a feral orange cat seemed to glare at her with its big orange eyes. Mila raised her eyebrow, in an identical fashion like Lucius did, and looked at the cat for a moment longer before moving away. 

A low meow caught her attention and large, green eyes met Mila’s eyes. The cat was tiny, wrinkly with dark grey complexion and no fur. It meowed again and moved closer to the cage towards Mila. 

“I found it!” She exclaimed, gaining Lucius’ attention. He moved closer and looked at the cat before glancing at her. 

“Are you sure?” He enquired to which Mila nodded quickly. 

“Fine. You take care of it, clean for it and if I find that you are lacking, it’s going,” He expressed and handed her the 9 Galleon to pay for it. 

Once everything was paid for and signed, Mila refused to put it inside the cage, choosing to rather hold it in her arms, something the creature didn’t mind. In fact, Mila could hear her purr as she scratched her ear. 

“What are you going to name it?” Lucius asked, leading the way back.

“Margo. Her name is Margo,” Mila declared happily. 

  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

Mila's last month before Hogwarts was quiet. For the most part, she spent her days flicking through the pages of her new books, scribbling down notes here and there into loose parchment papers. Stains of jet black ink became a part of her, and there was more than one occasion where she had to get either Narcissa or Lucius to get rid of the spilled ink from the carpets. The times where her hand cramped from too much work, Mila spent her time on the broom with Draco in the back gardens. It was almost a guarantee that their friendly match of 1 on 1 Quidditch within the first few rounds would turn into a competitive mess. Margo followed her wherever she went, refusing to stay in the cage. Her wide, green eyes were trained on the girl, and not even Lucius could separate them. Overall, Mila enjoyed the last month of summer.

Which brought her to September 1st. Mila had woken at seven in the morning and by seven-thirty she had finished getting ready for the day. She had tied her light, blonde hair into a high ponytail and dressed in a simple, soft, long sleeve black dress that fell just above her knees. Mila double-checked she had everything packed and ready to go before she went back to her bed where Margo had been napping between the covers. She let out a low whine at the prospect of being removed from warm covers and handled at such an early hour. Mila shushed her by stroking her back a couple of times and then gently deposited her into the cage that was placed on top of her trunk. With another glance at her companion, Mila left her room in search of Draco.

Draco's room was still drowning in darkness when she entered, the only light coming through the door with her. She stood in the room for a moment, checking to see that Draco was still fast asleep and with his lack of moment and slow breathing urging her on, she jumped on the bed, startling him awake.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Draco growled out once he awake enough to realize what happened but by then Mila started chatting.

"Draco, come on get ready we need to go soon. Are you even packed yet cause I swear to Merlin if we are late because of you I will make sure you never play Quidditch again. How can you even be sleeping?"

"Shuttttt up, it's not even morning yet," Draco complained, pulling the covers over his head.

"It so is, get up,"

"No,"

"I'll tell Lucius," Mia half threatened in hopes to get him to do what she wanted but he didn't budge. If anything, he tried to push her off when turning on his side, his back facing her.

"Get lost, Mila," With a huff, Mila gave up for the moment and left him to sleep. She would get back to him by eating up most of the chocolate-chip pancakes, leaving him with the plain ones.

* * *

By ten-thirty, Mila and Draco were already sitting in one of the compartments on the large train. Having said a short and polite goodbye to Lucius and Narcissa, Mila followed behind Draco throughout the train until he found where their friends were sitting. Well, more like Draco's friends, Mila was an acquaintance to them. Lucius and Narcissa had set up meetings from time to time and while Draco seemed to like their company, Mila always tried to find different ways to get out of spending time with them. Seeing Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe already stuffing their faces the moment they had a chance made Mila wrinkle her nose in disgust and reach for a book from her trunk before sitting with her back by the window, propping her legs on the seat beside Draco.

The train finally let out a loud whistle and started to move, and for a while, Mila had enjoyed the relatively peaceful time on the journey. That was until Pansy Parkinson came into their compartment.

"Hi, Draco. Goyle, Crabbe," She greeted them before glancing at her. "Mila, move. I want to sit beside Draco,"

Mila glanced from the book and raised one of her eyebrows at her, scoffing under her breath. While Pansy Parkinson was thin and short in stature, her annoying and whining personality made up for it tenfold.

"Pansy, just sit by Goyle, it's not a big deal," Draco sighed, not paying much attention, choosing to watch the scenery go by instead.

"But Draco -" She huffed but nonetheless listened and plopped down beside Goyle.

"So," She smacked her lips and crossed her arms over her chest. "Did you hear that Harry Potter is on this train right now?"

Mila looked up from her book again, this time with interest, and Draco seemed to sit up at the news.

"Is that so?" He asked, even Goyle and Crabbe had enough sense in them to listen in.

"Mhm. Though I heard he was seen with the _Weasleys_ so I wouldn't have too much hope for him if he chooses to associate with the likes of _them_." Pansy sneered at the very concept.

"I wonder which house he will end up if he is on the train," Mila mused out loud.

"Slytherin!" Crabbe shouted out with a chocolate frog in his mouth, it staining his teeth messily.

"He defeated bloody _You-Know-Who_ , why would he be placed in _You-Know-Who's_ house, Crabbe?" Mila remarked with disgust at his stupidity.

"Uh…"

"My money would be on Ravenclaw," Mila shrugged and returned to her book.

"Watch it, with the amount you read, you'll end up in Ravenclaw," Draco remarked in jest, earning a light kick from Mila.

"Can you imagine that? That would be so humiliating and degrading. I bet Malfoys would disown you," Pansy sneered with a weird glee in her face. Mila was about to remark back, but the door to the compartment was suddenly thrown open.

"Excuse me, have you seen a toad, a boy named Neville lost it," A girl with bushy hair spoke, clearly annoyed as her eyes darted around the compartment as if they would be the ones hiding it.

"No, does it look like we would have a bloody toad?" Draco bit out harshly, glaring at the poor girl.

"I was just asking, no need to be so rude," the girl muttered lowly and left them alone.

"Well, this has been fun," Mila sighed closing the book and reaching for her trunk to take out the uniform. She glanced at the cage that was laying on top of it and smiled, seeing that Margo was lazily laying down in it.

"I'll be right back, mind the book," She mumbled, throwing the book on Draco's lap and standing up on the seats to pass him before jumping down and leaving the compartment. It didn't take her long to find the girl's bathroom, but she had to wait in a queue before she could change. Sighing, she changed as quickly as she could, making sure that the uniform was tucked in and neat. She also checked herself in the mirror, ensuring her pale, freckled face was clean and her hair still tidy. She was pleased with what she saw in the mirror as her big, light brown eyes stared back at her.

Mila just stepped out of the bathrooms when she heard the small commotion nearby. To no surprise, it was Draco with Goyle and Crabbe already annoying someone.

"Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" Draco sneered.

"Unless you get out now," a voice retorted and Mila recognized the voice as Harry's, from the shop.

"But we don't feel like leaving, do we, boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some,"

"If you keep eating all the junk you will get fat, and then," Mila interrupted their little fight with her own joke, hoping to avoid Draco getting in trouble.

"Funny," Draco rolled his eyes. She was close enough to him that when he abruptly took a step back, he bumped into her and stepped on her foot.

"Watch it!" Mila hissed hopping on one foot and reaching to rub the other when Goyle let out a horribly loud yell and frantically attempted to throw off a rat that had bitten him. All of them took a step back in fear of being hit, as Goyle wasn't the most graceful with the arms.

"Let's go," Mila used the opportunity to pull Draco's arm towards their compartment.

"That was _Potter._ " He spat out as he shoved his arms into his pockets. Mila nodded in agreement, not sure what to think about that. From all the stories she had heard throughout the years, she was expecting...something more. The boy they met in the shop a month ago seemed timid and pretty average, not exactly someone that was said to be destined for greatness. She couldn't imagine how he could have defeated You-Know-Who as a child when right now he looked like he didn't even know what magic was.

* * *

The remaining of the train ride seemed to pass quicker than when it began and soon enough they were pulling to a stop. It was surprising that by the time they arrived it was already dark outside and chilly. Shivering, Mila wrapped her arms around herself and tried her best to stay beside Draco but with all the students moving in all directions, with some older ones being more aggressive in their walks, she got separated and couldn't see him anymore. She could feel her heart beating faster and a strange feeling overcome her. She had felt it from time to time when she was worried that she was in trouble back home, but right now she wasn't in any trouble so she couldn't understand why she felt it.

"Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here!" She could hear a booming voice shouting over all the chatter and once more Mila's eyes darted across everyone in hopes to find Draco. She had never been separated from him that abruptly, most of the time she counted on having a rough idea of where he was but now she didn't and she didn't like it.

Someone bumped into her shoulder trying to pass by which got her to move in and follow the rest of the first years. They walked through a steep, narrow path in a line and Mila could barely see where she was going. She wanted to hold Margo but she had to be left behind on the train. It really wasn't her luck right now.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o'Hogwarts in a sec," The half-giant called over his shoulder. "jus' round this bend here."

The narrow path had opened on to the edge of a black lake. Mila had read about Hogwarts, saw pictures of it but the sight of the grand castle in person awed and took her breath away. It was something indescribable to actually see the vast castle with many turrets and towers that she would soon call home.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Mila ended up getting onto the small boat with people she had never seen in her life. She watched the reflection of herself in the black water as their little boats glided through with ease until they reached the tunnel that took them to some sort of underground harbor. Her feet barely landed on the rocks and pebbles before she felt her arm being yanked.

"Where the bloody hell did you disappear to?" Draco hissed at her, but she couldn't have been happier to see him.

"Me? You're the one that left me behind," Mila retorted but couldn't hide the smile that formed. She started to feel easier, the worrying feeling at the back of her mind finally disappearing and letting her stiff shoulders relax.

The half-giant raised his gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door. The old, heavy wooden door opened at once. A tall, black-haired woman with emerald-green robes and a very stern facial expression stood there.

"The firs'-years, Professor McGonagall," He informed the woman.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." With that, she pulled the door wide open. Mila had never seen anything as big as the Great Hall. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches, the ceiling was too high to make out, and the magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors. They all followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Mila didn't plan of letting go of Draco, choosing to loosely hold onto a piece of his robe. They were lead into a small empty chamber off the hall, all of them cramping inside closely.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall spoke "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room. The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house within the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours. The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarted yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." Mila listened to her speak and felt shivers run up and down her back, each word sinking in. She couldn't wait till they got sorted so she could start earning points for Slytherin. With the amount of study she put in, she was sure she could at least impress the professors.

"I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly," With that, she was gone and they were left alone. She could hear someone whispering very fast about something, and she could catch a few names of spells, but before she could listen in more, someone screamed. She jerked to look back just as about twenty ghosts streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to each other and hardly glancing at the new students.

"New students! About to be sorted, I suppose?" One of the ghosts had finally noticed them. Some people nodded in agreement, not daring to speak.

"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff! My old house you know!" Mila's eyes trailed to Draco when she heard him snort.

"Move along now, the Sorting Ceremony is about to start. Stand in line and follow me." Professor McGonagall returned and sounded even stricter than before. If that was even possible.

Mila stepped behind Draco as they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall. The Great Hall was just as magnificent as she imagined and then some more. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were gloating mid-air over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. It was weird to feel so many eyes on her but she tried to ignore it, choosing to look at another long table at the end of the Great Hall where the teachers were sitting.

"It's bewitched to look like the sky outside, I read about it in 'Hogwarts: A History'" Mila heard someone behind her brag and resisted the need to roll her eyes. The girl was clearly attempting to show off how smart she was to read a boring book. For some reason, it irked her. Anyone could read a book.

McGonagall led them to the front and placed a four-legged stool in front of the first-years. On top of the stool, she put a pointed wizard's hat. The hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. Mila's nose scrunched at the thought of it touching her hair, she would have to shower again today by the end of it. For a few seconds, there was complete silence then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth and to her utter surprise, it started to sing. Even Draco turned back to look at her as if to ask if she was hearing what he was. She shrugged her shoulders at him and was hoping it would shut up, but the hat kept singing for what felt eternity.

Mila clapped along with others out of politeness as the hat bowed to each of the four tables before becoming still again. That was… wacky. Professor McGonagall stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," She said. "Abbott, Hannah!" Mila watched people being called out to the front with mild interest as her and Draco's names wouldn't be called for a long while.

"See you in a minute," She leaned closer to Draco, whispering to him when the names edged closer to the letter 'M'. Draco gave her a small smile and nodded.

"Malfoy, Draco!" His name was finally called and she watched him confidently swagger forward.

"SLYTHERIN!" The hat shouted out, after making the briefest contact with him. Mila clapped loudly, feeling pride fill her heart. She had no doubt he would be sorted anywhere else.

The list kept moving slowly through each student and Mila started to wonder why they haven't provided them with chairs if they insisted to go through everyone's names. She listened at times when a name she knew got called out but other than that she spaced out.

"Potter, Harry!" Professor McGonagall called out and everyone's attention, including Mila's, turned to the boy with glasses and messy hair. It seemed that everyone was waiting with bated breath to see what the verdict was.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat shouted out after a few moments and Mila's shoulders sagged. That was… a bit anticlimactic. Sure, she didn't expect him to be sorted into Slytherin but Gryffindor was almost too predictable.

"Rosier, Mila!" Hearing her own name be called out so loudly made her jump a little. With a loud beating heart she looked up at the chair and took a step forward. And another. And another. Until she was sitting down on the stool in front of everyone. Then a black hat was placed over her head.

" _Hmm,"_ a small voice whispered into her ear. _"What to do with you? Such wit and desire to prove that you're the best among them all. Not a small thirst for adventure and knowledge either. You'll apply yourself quite well in…._ " Mila's breath caught in her throat, anticipating the answer. This was it.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The air suddenly left the room with no warning. Every bone in her body froze, the blood disappeared, and she felt like she left her body altogether. She couldn't move, she couldn't breathe, she couldn't do anything for a moment. When she got separated from Draco earlier in the day and felt the sudden feeling of fear, she thought that was odd. Now, that fear felt like a gentle breeze compared to the wave that just crashed and drowned her.

That was not the answer she expected.


	3. Chapter 3

The feast passed in a blur. Mila could not remember how she made it down from the stool to the Gryffindor table, she couldn't remember who she sat down beside and if they talked to her or not. She didn't touch her plate, all the food that appeared on the table made her stomach churn painfully at the thought of putting it in her mouth. She didn't dare to glance at the Slytherin table even for a second. She was not prepared to deal with that. In fact, she wasn't prepared to deal with any of it. She didn't even know how to begin to deal with it.

So Mila sat throughout the dinner, sat through Dumbledore's speech, through the singing, barely making any movement until it was time to leave. Even then, she followed her house out of the Great Hall and up the marble staircase, through corridors and doorways behind sliding panels, not paying any attention. She could vaguely remember the appearance of Peeves, an apparent poltergeist, and his antics before they entered the tower.

The common room looked cozy enough, a round room full of squashy armchairs but as Mila looked around it, she couldn't help as disappointment filled her heart. The place was too warm, too red, too unfamiliar. The prefect led the girls to their dormitory, where their stuff was already there. Wordlessly, Mila walked to Margo's cage and gently deposited her on the four-poster bed before harshly pulling the deep-red velvet curtains shut. She didn't bother to change her clothes, just simply kicked off her shoes and pulled out her wand from the holster in her robes.

"Silencio," She whispered the charm that Lucius taught her over the summer. Only then did she let herself break down and cry. Malfoys didn't cry, especially not in front of others. But she didn't even know if she was one anymore after tonight. What would Narcissa and Lucius do when they found out? Would they even want her after she ended up in the house full of traitors and mudbloods? Would they let her come back home after she dishonored her birth parents' name? What about Draco? Would he still speak to her or would he see her as one of them that was beneath him? There were too many unanswered possibilities, so she let her tears soak through the pillow, her only comfort being the small, warm body of Margo in her arms. At some point, her low purring lulled Mila to a dreamless sleep.

Mila woke early in the morning and prepared herself for the lessons like she did for the whole week. It all passed in a blur. Between trying to remember all the passages and doorways and actual lessons, she had no time to dwell. Or talk to Draco. She had avoided him for the whole week in fear of what his actual response to her would be. So she went to an early breakfast, missed lunch and ate late dinners when there were fewer people around. They haven't had combined lessons yet, which helped in avoiding him. That was until today. Today She and Draco shared Potions class together, which meant she would actually have to face him.

Mila slung her backpack over her shoulder and left the dormitory. It was still very early in the morning, which meant she didn't have to see any of her peers just yet. By the time she found the Great Hall again, the breakfast was set on the tables, but only a few students and professors were present. She found a few empty seats in the middle of the long table and slung her feet over the bench before pulling the 'Magical Drafts and Potions' textbook out of her bag to pass the time. She had briefly met professor Snape a few times when he came to speak with Lucius, but he made enough of an impression to know he would not tolerate students' lack of knowledge in his subject.

Mila was halfway through eating an apple when someone slung their backpack and sat down opposite of her. Glancing up, she saw the same bushy girl that had barged in her compartment back on the train. Hermione Granger, she recalled from the Sorting Ceremony.

"I'm surprised someone is actually up early, I thought I was going to be the only one," The girl spoke without any prompting from Mila.

"Hmm," She mumbled looking back down at the book, hoping Hermione would get the hint that she didn't want to talk to her.

"I'm Hermione Granger," She introduced herself, much to Mila's disappointment.

"Mila," Mila reluctantly replied and attempted a small, polite smile.

"What are you reading?"

"Potions, we have it today,"

"I can't wait. I wonder what Professor Snape is like," Hermione wondered out loud and looked up at the professors' table where Severus Snape was hiding behind the Daily Prophet. Mila looked at him as well.

"Strict," Mila replied with a small shrug.

"You met him before?"

"Briefly," They fell into a brief silence.

"Um...you seemed to be upset at the Sorting Ceremony," Hermione spoke silently and Mila could feel the hesitation. "I was just wondering if you're okay. I know it's hard to be away from family, so if you want someone to talk to or sit with…"

"Yeah...Uh-I..Thanks," Mila stuttered through, not sure how to respond. "I need to go, it was nice..meeting you,"

"Bye Mila," She could feel Hermione's gaze on her as she packed up and left the Great Hall in a hurry. Not knowing where to go to spend the remaining of her free time, Mila wandered through the halls until her classes began.

In the afternoon, Mila, with what little bravery she had left, found her way to the dungeons for Potions. The classroom was cooler than the rest of the castle; the walls were covered in stone, and random glass jars with weird things were floating about. Mila was one of the last few students coming into the classroom before Snape, so most of the seats were already taken. With a heavy sigh, she walked over to the only empty seat she saw and sat down beside Draco. With the pounding of her heart in her ears, she took out the book along with parchment paper and ink. The silence was deafening and so uncomfortable she wished the ground would open up and swallow her.

"What, you suddenly become too good to talk to me?" Draco finally spoke out, his voice filled with venom.

"What?" Mila blurted looking up at him. She was surprised that he spoke to her but what shocked her more was the tone he spoke to her.

"Became deaf too?"

"No, of course not Draco! I thought you wouldn't want to have anything to do with me anymore since...you know what!" Mila lowered her voice as her hand clenched into a fist under the table.

"You're an idiot, Mila," Draco answered after a few moments of silence, his voice losing the venom. She felt relief wash over her.

"Yeah, maybe," She replied back with a small smile, hope filling her heart. Maybe everything didn't fall completely apart and her life wasn't over.

Severus Snape strolled into the room precisely on time and wasted no time with introductions. Mila straightened up in her seat and pulled the papers closer. The aura around the professor was alluring and demanding attention. He went through the register until Harry's name came up.

"Ah, yes," He said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new.. _celebrity_ " Mila heard Draco along with Crabbe and Goyle snickered as she couldn't help but smile in pity. Professor Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word–like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses ... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach." By the time he finished speaking Mila was hanging onto his every word, eagerly waiting to start because that sounded more than amazing.

"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Mila's hand shot up into the air and by the looks of it so did Hermione's.

"I don't know, sir," said Harry. Snape's lips curled into a sneer.

"Tut, tut – fame clearly isn't everything. Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?" 'For the love of Merlin' Mila thought as she matched Hermione's eager stretched arm with her own. Their eyes met across the room and both shared a small look of exasperation. This stuff was literally in the third chapter, for crying out loud.

"I don't know, sir." Came Harry's quiet response as he refused to move his gaze away from the professor. It was as if he was asking for it.

"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?" At this point, it wasn't just Draco with Goyle and Crabbe laughing, some boys from Gryffindor were chuckling to themselves.

"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?" Professor Snape continued with his interrogation, completely ignoring the girls. At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching towards the dungeon ceiling.

"I don't know but I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?" Harry finally retorted, losing his patience. The room went dead silent for a second before someone laughed again. Mila put her hand back down and covered her face with it to hide her laughter as she and Draco shared a look. Things were about to escalate quickly, no one spoke to Professor Snape like that and got away with it.

"Sit down," he snapped at Hermione before turning back to Harry. "For your information, Potter, asphodel, and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from

most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?" Everyone except Mila rushed to scribble everything down before anyone else got into trouble.

"And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter"

The rest of the class was more practical. Mila and Draco got paired up together and got to make simple potions to cure boils. It was easy to work with him, Mila noted as they both split up the work and proceeded to follow the instructions with Professor Snape looming over them from time to time. Even with his piercing gaze at the back of their heads, they managed to get the horned slugs stewed without a mistake to which Professor Snape was happy enough to make an example of in front of everyone. A light blush flushed to Mila's cheeks while Draco smirked triumphantly at their praises.

Just then, clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. One boy had somehow managed to melt someone's cauldron into a twisted blob and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while the boy who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.

"Idiot boy!" snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand.

"I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?" The boy could only whimper as boils started to pop up all over his nose.

"Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at the boy's partner before marching to where Harry and his friends were sitting.

Mila and Draco finished brewing their potion and carefully poured it into a vial before cleaning up their station. Potions were quickly becoming Mila's favorite lesson.

Once the class was dismissed, Mila slung the bag on her shoulder and approached Snape's desk where he was already busy writing something on the papers.

"The potion sir," Mila mumbled, putting the vial gently on the table.

"Yes, thank you, Miss Rosier, it is somewhat a relief that there are a few students who aren't complete morons," Snape replied curtly, not glancing up from his work. "Although I am not very interested in people jumping out of their seats to try to impress everyone with textbook answers.

I am more interested in someone's ability to put it into practical use."

"Yes sir," Mila grinned in reply, refusing to take it in any other way than praise. Sure Hermione managed to make a perfect potion as well, but Snape called her and Draco out in front of everyone.

"That is all," He added when she didn't immediately leave. She blinked in realization, somewhat embarrassed.

"Of course. Good day, sir," She mumbled and left the classroom where Draco was waiting around nearby.

"Already becoming the professor's pet?" Draco asked with his eyebrow raised, but his voice wasn't unkind.

"Hm, maybe," Mila teased back being in the best mood she ever was this week. Draco was speaking to her, and she was pretty decent in all of her classes so far. It was turning into a good day.

"Anyway, I wanted to know if you want to go to Slytherin's common room, see what you're missing out on." Draco declared as they made their way through the dungeons.

"Sure," Mila agreed before adding more quietly, "But you do know I didn't choose to be in Gryffindor, right? The hat just decided it, I had no say in it,"

"...Yeah."

The rest of their short journey became somewhat awkward and Mila didn't know what to say to make it better. She could tell Draco was still mad and maybe blamed her somewhat for not ending up in Slytherin with him, but she couldn't do anything about that. If she could, she would have done it already. They stopped in front of a damp stone wall and Mila looked at Draco, puzzled.

" _Slytherites."_ Draco spoke up, and a concealed stone door appeared and slid away, leaving enough room for people to go through. Draco wasted no time and walked further in, finding his way towards one of the couches. The Slytherin common room was a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling, from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of them.

"Well?" Draco asked impatiently.

"It is amazing," Mila breathed out, still looking around in awe. Instantly she felt a pang of jealousy. She liked this way more than the Gryffindor's common room. "It's wayyy better than mine,"

"Thought so," was Draco's smug reply. "I'm bored, let's play Chess."

They spent a good chunk of the afternoon staring at the board and strategizing their next moves and guessing what the other one was going to do. At some point, the game got so long and intense that a few older Slytherins took interest and were watching the game from further away. Ultimately, Draco got the last laugh as his game piece struck the last of hers. Groans and laughter erupted from the ones that were watching while Mila sighed dramatically but shook Draco's hand in salute.

"One more?" Draco grinned mischievously as the game pieces began to repair themselves.

"And lose my mind? No thanks," She laughed, leaning back into the couch she was sitting on. Her eyes caught the sight of the Daily Prophet lying on a nearby table and to relax her brain a bit after the game, she reached for it. Most of the articles were quite boring until a smaller section of print caught her attention.

_GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST_

_Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31_

_July, widely believed to be the work of dark wizards or witches_

_unknown._

_Gringotts' goblins today insisted that nothing had been_

_taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied_

_the same day._

' _But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your_

_noses out if you know what's good for you,' said a Gringotts_

_spokesgoblin this afternoon._

"Apparently someone broke into Gringotts recently," Mila commented out loud glancing through the rest of the pages to see if there was anything else written about it. There wasn't.

"Oh? What did they steal?" Draco glanced up at her from putting away the game.

"Nothing,"

"That's weird, what's the point then?"

"No clue," She replied, folding the paper up and throwing it to the empty space at the end of the couch. "Maybe whatever it was, was already taken out?"

"Maybe," Draco shrugged and stood up to take the chess set to his dormitory. "Want a chocolate frog?"

"And Acid Pops!" She called after him. Glancing around the room again, she wished she could stay here forever. It was calm here, she knew people here, and the interior had a relaxing buzz around it. It felt like home.

* * *


	4. Chapter 4

The flying lessons were scheduled to start on Thursday and to Mila's excitement, Gryffindors and Slytherins were joined together for it. Everyone was filled with anticipation and eagerly told stories about their experiences of flying. Mila had raised a questioning eyebrow the moment Draco opened his mouth to tell everyone a story about flying that surprisingly ended up with him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters, even though the Malfoy Manor was warded off with spells that would make it invisible for the Muggles. Mila couldn't help but overhear most of the stories, especially in the Gryffindor Common Room where boys were particularly loud and often argued about the credibility of the said stories.

To her surprise, Hermione was stressing out about flying for a whole week, trying to learn about it from any books that she could get her hands on. Mila had slowly come around to the girl throughout the few weeks that they were here. She didn't mean or plan to do that, but it was nice to talk to someone who was interested in learning and it never hurt to compare answers to homework. Even though she was around Harry Potter and Ron while Mila spent her time with Draco, from time to time they managed to spend some time together unbothered by others.

"Why are you trying to learn it from books?" Mila finally asked her one day when they were in the girl's dormitory getting ready for bed. "Wouldn't you just...oh I don't know, try flying a broom? Or get someone to teach you?"

"Because that is against the rules, first-years are not allowed on the brooms without teachers supervision," Hermione replied, taking a brush to her hair.

"Yeah sure," Mila mumbled as she splashed water on her face before drying it out with a tower. "I'm just saying that most students fly around their homes for half their lives and have experience beforehand. You could catch up with them if you broke a few little rules."

"I don't break rules," Hermione replied proudly once they left the lavatories.

"I picked up on that. Everyone has," Mila half-smiled. "Let me know if you change your mind,"

It took two whole days before Hermione broke in. Mila sat in a corner of the common room during an early evening after dinner with Margo on her lap when Hermione barged int and made her way to her.

"Teach me," Hermione hissed out when she was close enough. Mila raised her eyebrow in amusement, partly because she didn't think Hermione would be willing to break any rules. Nevertheless, Mila compiled after putting Margo in her bed and they walked out of the tower in search of broomsticks.

"If we get caught we will be in so much trouble," Hermione informed Mila as her eyes darted between the corridors once Mila found the broom storeroom.

"Good thing is that we won't if you keep watching," Mila mumbled, pulling out her wand and pointing it at the door. " _Alohomora"._

Holding two basic and worn out broomsticks in her arms, Mila and Hermione snuck out into the Quidditch pitch. Once she was sure that nobody followed them, Mila relaxed and went into a detailed explanation of how to fly. She showed Hermione how to grip the broomstick correctly in her hands and how to mount it and not to slip off it and only when she was certain that she wouldn't injure herself, Mila told her to kick off the ground lightly. She stood by the broom just in case Hermione lost control and supervised the small levitation from the ground until Hermione's feet hit the ground again and she was off the broom. Only then did she mount her own broom and rose into the air where she performed small loops. Feeling the air rush through her hair, she lifted her hands up while effortlessly balancing herself on the broom. To show off, Mila called out Hermione's name and holding her legs firmly in place swung her body to the side, so that she could end up upside down.

"Don't say a word of this to anyone," Mila warned Hermione after she finally touched down to the ground. Unknown to them, a tabby cat had been watching them.

* * *

Mila never thought breakfast could be so boring until Hermione felt the need to bombard everyone in close proximity with useless flying trivia from ' _Quidditch through the Ages'_ which unfortunately included Mila. She stared at the porridge, almost hoping that it would come alive and attack her so she would have something to do. Luckily for her, Hermione's lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the post. She watched as Draco's eagle owl, Apollo landed on Slytherin's table with gifts and sighed, her heart clenching uncomfortably. So far she had received nothing and she couldn't help but think that if she was in Slytherin that wouldn't be the case.

"It's a Remembrall!" Neville, a boy she was paired up with in Herbology exclaimed bringing Mila's attention back to her table.

"Gran knows I forget things – this tells you if there's something you've forgotten to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red – oh …" His face fell because the Remembrall had suddenly glowed scarlet, "... you've forgotten something …"

While Neville was trying to remember what he'd forgotten when Draco approached the table and snatched it from his hand. Mila watched as Harry and his friend jumped out of their seats and Professor McGonagall came in a flash to supervise.

"What's going on?"

"Malfoy's got my Remembrall, Professor," Neville complained looking down shyly. Scowling, Draco quickly dropped the Remembrall back on the table.

"Just looking." He muttered, reaching into his pocket and pulled out two letters and a shrunken down parcel. "This came in for you,"

Once Mila took her mail, Draco left with Crabbe and Goyle behind him. She stared at them for a few moments _._ Both letters had ' _Mila Rosier'_ written in the centre of the envelopes and she could recognize which was Narcissa's and which was from Lucius from the handwriting. These were the first letters she had received from them and she wasn't sure if she wanted to know what they contained in front of everyone so she put them in her bag and continued to eat her breakfast.

* * *

At three-thirty that afternoon, Mila followed all her classmates down the front steps into the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns towards a smooth lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the Forbidden Forest. The Slytherins were already there and so were the brooms lying in neat lines on the ground. She noticed where Draco was chatting with Goyle and made her way towards him. To much of her displeasure, Pansy was already beside Draco, like she always tended to be. While her friendship with Hermione slowly grew, her fragile friendship with Pansy was down the drain the moment she got sorted in Gryffindor.

"Ooooh the traitor is here," Pansy scorned crossing her arms over her chest with a smirk on her face.

"Always a pleasure Parkinson," Mila said sarcastically while Draco ordered Goyle to move to another place. Pancy saw it and scowled but did not voice her opinions out loud.

"I would have killed myself already if I was placed in those traitors' house," Pansy snickered in her direction, trying to get a reaction out of her.

"Shut it, Pansy," Draco sighed, cutting in. Mila smiled triumphantly towards the girl, they both knew that if Draco had to choose he would pick Mila over her.

Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, grey hair and yellow eyes like a hawk.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone standby a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."

Mila glanced down at her broomstick and scrunched her nose in disgust. This one was ever more worn out than the one she borrowed to teach Hermione. She wished that she could have the one from home, it was the latest model and was actually taken care of unlike this piece of junk.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom,' called Madam Hooch at the front, 'and say, ' _Up!'_ "

"Up!" With the firm command, the broom flew into her. Draco's followed suit and so did Harry's but the rest of the broom stayed put on the ground. It took some time but eventually, everyone got their brooms to comply and Madam Hooch then showed everyone how to grip them and mount them properly.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard,' said Madam Hooch. 'Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet and then come straight back down by leaning forwards slightly. On my whistle – three – two –" But it seemed that Neville had other ideas and kicked off too hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.

"Come back, boy!" She shouted but Neville was rising straight up the air. It all happened in a blink of an eye, one moment he was on the broom, and the next, there was a loud crack and Neville was on the grass in a heap. They all stood frozen as Madam Hooch ran towards him to check if he was alright.

"Broken wrist," She muttered close enough for Mila to hear. "Come on, boy – it's all right, up you get."

She turned to the rest of the class.

"None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say ' _Quidditch'._ Come on, dear"

"Did you see his face, the great lump?" Draco snickered with the rest of Slytherins the moment they disappeared. Mila rolled her eyes at his antics, while she loved Draco, she had to admit he had his less than appealing qualities.

"Shut up, Malfoy" snapped a girl that Mila recognized as Parvati Patil.

"Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" Pansy felt the need to stick her nose in the conversation. "Never thought you'd like fat little cry babies"

"Says the rat," Mila muttered under her breath low enough that only a handful of people heard. Those included Pansy herself and she looked seething.

"Look!" Draco exclaimed interrupting, and snatched the left behind Remembrall and held it up to inspect it, "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him."

"Give that here, Malfoy" Harry interjected before Mila could say anything and everyone quieted down to listen.

"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to collect – how about – up a tree?" Draco smirked before leaping on his broom and taking off.

"Give it here!" Harry yelled after him and took off as well, perhaps a bit ungracefully. Hermione tried to stop him but it was useless.

"For the love of Merlin," Mila exasperated, mounting her own broom and following them before they could kill themselves or each other. She quickly caught up with them both just as Harry leaned forward and grasped the broom tightly in both hands and it shot towards Draco like a javelin. Draco barely got out of the way just in time to miss the attack.

"No Crabbe and Goyle up here to save your neck, Malfoy,' Harry called out, not seeing Mila behind him. Adrenaline coursed through her and she pushed her broom forward and zoomed past him, close enough for him to grip the broom tighter and wobble a bit. Turning the broom back she stopped near Draco, gripping the wood with one hand.

"Do that again and Neville won't be the only one in the Hospital Wing." Mila snarled at Harry ready to fly by again if needed but was interrupted by Draco.

"Catch it if you can, then!" Draco shouted and threw the glass ball high into the air and they both watched with a small surprise that Harry darted after it with no hesitation.

"I didn't need your help," Draco grumbled half glaring at her for showing up.

"Sure you didn't," Mila sneered back "What was that for? Leave others' shit alone." With that, she darted back to the ground. She could hear Draco following back down as well but she couldn't have cared less at the moment. Angrily she threw the broom on the ground and stood in the crowd beside Hermione who seemed to know better than to say anything to her.

Just then, Professor McGonagall came running towards them.

"HARRY POTTER! Never - in all my time at Hogwarts" She sputtered "how dare you – might have broken your neck –"

"It wasn't his fault, Professor –"

"Be quiet, Miss Patil –"

"But Malfoys they both –"

"That's enough, Mr. Weasley. Potter, follow me. Rosier you too, now" Mila froze momentarily not having expected her name to be called out in front of everyone and from everyone's look of surprise on their faces neither did they. Except for Ron, Ron seemed a bit pleased judging from the smug smirk on his face. Her eyes met with Draco who seemed stunned but she said nothing as she followed McGonagall and Harry out of their class and towards the castle. The walk seemed to go on forever and with Harry looking more and more miserable by the moment at her side, Mila felt a twinge of worry. She didn't think she did anything worse than Harry or Draco if anything she was just trying to help. They finally stopped outside a classroom. McGonagall opened the door and poked her head inside.

"Excuse me, Professor Flitwick, could I borrow Wood for a moment?" and soon enough a fifth-year boy came out of Flitwick's class looking confused.

"Follow me, you three," Said McGonagall and followed her into a classroom. Wood glanced at them curiously and Mila just shrugged with a small apologetic smile. The classroom was empty except for Peeves, who was busy writing colourful words on the blackboard.

"Out,Peeves!" She barked at it. Peeves threw the chalk into a bin, which clanged loudly, and he swooped out cursing. Professor McGonagall slammed the door behind him and turned to face the three of them.

'Potter, Rosier, this is Oliver Wood. Wood – I've found you a Seeker and a new Beater," Mila looked up shocked at McGonagall. Was she for real? She expected to get a detention for not following the rules or get points taken away but not to get on a quidditch team. The first years never got on the team, let alone a first-year girl getting offered a Beater position. There were only a handful of older female beaters since it was a physically demanding position. She and Harry shared a look of bewilderment.

"Are you serious, Professor?" Oliver asked, sounding delighted.

"Absolutely," McGonagall responded crisply. "They're natural. She's flying effortlessly around with no hands and he caught this thing in his hand after a fifty-foot dive,"

At her descriptions, Wood was looking as though all his dreams had come true at once.

"'Ever seen a game of Quidditch?" He asked excitedly. Mila nodded at once while Harry looked puzzled.

"Wood's captain of the Gryffindor team,' Professor McGonagall explained while Wood was inspecting them.

"He's just the build for a Seeker, too,' said Wood, now walking around Harry and staring at him. "Light – speedy – we'll have to get him a decent broom, Professor – a Nimbus Two Thousand or a Cleansweep Seven, I'd say." He then turned to Mila "We will have to get your muscle mass up a bit so you don't tire too easily or get thrown off but with some work and with your flexibility you'll do great,"

"I shall speak to Professor Dumbledore and see if we can't bend the first-year rule. Heaven knows we need a better team than last year. Flattened in that last match by Slytherin, I couldn't look Severus Snape in the face for weeks …"

"I want to hear you're training hard, Potter, Rosier or I may change my mind about punishing you two. Now go back to classes." Disbelievingly, they started to walk out just as McGonagall called out "Oh and Potter, your father would have been was an excellent Quidditch player himself."

"What just happened?" Harry asked once they were in the corridor.

"We just made history Harry," Mila grinned widely "Just wait till everyone hears about this."

* * *

"You're joking."

It was dinner time. By the time the food appeared on the tables, the majority of people knew of what occurred and there were mixed reactions. While people were excited that Harry was made the Seeker and surprised a first-year got to be a Beater, some were less than pleased that one of the Weasley twins, George, was removed from his position as a Beater. Particularly, Ron was seething about that fact. She had overheard him mutter ' _can't believe that Malfoy threw George out of the team'_ ' and few rather interesting name calls to others but chose to ignore it for the moment. Draco was shocked, to say the least when she told him but appeared genuinely proud and relieved at the news. She had a small suspicion that he felt guilty thinking he got her into trouble. Hermione, on the other hand, seemed to be particularly concerned about the aspect of her being a Beater.

"You could seriously be injured Mila, they could easily throw the bludger too hard and hit you. What was professor McGonagall thinking?" She stressed over dinner, making Mila giggle.

"It's gonna be fine," Mila assured, waving her hand. "Besides I only start training next week and the match isn't set to happen for a while, so I have some time to practice."

Their conversation, however, was interrupted by Draco appearing with Goyle and Crabbe at their table.

"Having the last meal, Potter? When are you getting the train back to the Muggles?"

"You're a lot braver now you're back on the ground and you've got your little friends with you," Harry replied coolly and Mila shared a look with Hermione. They both seemed to be much braver with teachers nearby when neither could do much other than talk.

"I'd take you on any time on my own," Draco replied. "Tonight, if you want. Wizard's duel. Wands only – no contact. What's the matter? Never heard of a wizard's duel before, I suppose?"

"Of course he has," Ron interjected. "'I'm his second, who's yours?"

Draco looked at Crabbe and Goyle, sizing them up before glancing at Mila for a second. She nodded slightly in agreement. She wouldn't have bothered, if not for a possibility to duel Ron for his little digs at her.

"Mila," Draco answered confidently."Midnight all right? We'll meet you in the trophy room, that's always unlocked."

"Suits me," Mila agreed, grabbing another chicken wing off of her plate. She could feel Hermione's judgmental look without even having to look at her.

"What?" Mila asked her with a raised eyebrow once Draco left. Hermione just shook her head exasperated. She turned to the boys.

"Excuse me," They both looked up.

"I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying –"

"Bet you could," Ron muttered but Mila was close enough to hear it and looked at him sharply. She was really going to enjoy kicking his ass.

"and you mustn't go wandering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose Gryffindor if you're caught, and you're bound to be. It's really very selfish of you." She also sent Mila a look.

"And it's really none of your business," said Harry joining Ron in attitude.

"Goodbye," said Ron and with that they both started to talk among themselves, ignoring Hermione. Mila looked at her and felt bad for the girl, it was obvious that she just wanted to be friends with them but they didn't. Perhaps she did misinterpret Hermione's relationship with them.

"Anyways," Mila spoke up, attempting to distract her "Did you see what's next in Potions? It will be mad if we can actually use it. Turning Pansy's head into a pumpkin will do wonders to her appearance."

Hermione rewarded her with a small smile.

* * *

It was late in the evening when she heard a tapping on a window at the end of the girl's dormitory. Rolling out of her bed, she quietly walked to the window and opened it slightly. Apollo peaked his head in with a parchment paper in his beak.

"Thanks, buddy," Mila whispered, petting his head and sending him off. She made her way back to her bed without waking anyone up. She pulled the curtains close all the way and leaned across the bed to Margo and scratched the cat's ear before placing a light kiss.

' _Change of plans. Heard Filch is on patrol tonight. Don't say a word to Potter._

_Draco'_

Mila sighed, scrunching the parchment up into a small ball. There went her chance. Remembering that she still had to open her letters, she reached into her bag by the bed and pulled them out. The first one she opened was from Narcissa.

' _Dear Mila,_

_Draco wrote to us about what happened. While it was a huge surprise and took a while to think about the implications, we are certain you will make us proud even in Gryffindor. I hope you are doing well, I heard Severus was pleased with your work in his class. Do let us know how the rest of your lessons are going. If you need anything, you know where to find Draco. Just in case you're missing home I included a little gift to make you feel better._

_Keep Draco out of trouble,_

_Narcissa Malfoy._

Mila grinned, rereading the letter twice before finally putting it down. She then opened the letter from Lucius.

' _Mila,_

_I spoke with Severus. While you may not be in Slytherin, he agreed to look out for you like you are one. If you have any troubles, he will deal with you._

_Lucius Malfoy._

It was short and straight to the point but Mila wouldn't have traded it for anything else. They weren't disowning her. Today was getting just better and better. She couldn't wait to tell them that she was going to be a Beater. Opening up the small package, she saw that Narcissa had baked her several chocolate bakeries that she loved.

Just before she fell asleep, Mila heard the door open and close before a bed creaking. Had she not been absolutely exhausted from the day, she would have found that it was Hermione coming in late at night which was definitely not something she usually did.

* * *


	5. Chapter 5

"We could have been expelled if caught!" Hermione moaned the next morning as she and Mila were enjoying the last bits of good weather. They found a nice spot by an old oak tree where they could lie down and study in fresh air without being too far from the grounds to be late for lessons.

"Expelled, sure. _That's_ the worst that could have happened," Mila snickered, scribbling down her notes from 'A History of Magic'. The History of Magic had to be the most boring lesson she had to endure, and if it wasn't for Hermione's constant nagging, Mila would have found excuses to never open that book. She still had to find the motivation to start her essay that was due in two weeks.

"I'm serious! If it weren't for that door, Filch would have found us. You could have told us that ye two weren't going to show up, you know," Hermione gave her an accusing stare to which Mila shrugged. Dropping the quill into an inkpot, Mila put the sheet on top of her book to let it dry out and moved over so she could stretch and lay down on the grass.

"To be fair, I didn't even know either until Draco sent me an owl. Also, even if I had known, why should I have to say anything? They're not my friends, Ron is a twat and Harry mimics him, both are parading around the place as if they own it. Frankly, it wouldn't hurt if they were caught and taken off their high horses." Mila rambled as she put her arm over her eyes to shield her sight from the sun and sighed in contempt.

"Am I your friend?" Hermione asked after a while and Mila could hear the uncertainty in her voice. Not that Mila could blame her really, no one seemed to be too keen on being friends with her, unless they needed help with homework.

"Well, I am spending my Saturday morning with you aren't I?" Mila gave her a cheeky smirk which faltered a moment later. "Although, if my family were present, I couldn't acknowledge you as a friend. You know...uh... traditions and such,"

"How can you stand them?" Hermione asked silently. Mila propped herself up on her elbows and looked at her, confused.

"Who?"

"The Malfoys. People talk. Their beliefs are appalling and beyond unfair. It's just wrong." Hermione fidgeted with her quill not looking at her. Mila sighed and looked away. She had hoped that this particular conversation wouldn't come up for a long while.

"Who was saying stuff?" Mila enquired even though she had some idea. A particular Weasley seemed to not be able to shut his mouth.

"Doesn't matter who," Hermione mumbled, not wanting to rat him out.

"Ron doesn't know anything, Hermione. If you were a Slytherin and pointed at the sky and said it's blue, he would disagree and would say it's green simply because he hates Slytherin. I wouldn't trust his judgment of others."

"But it's true, isn't it?"

"Yes," Mila admitted silently. "But they're not evil people. Just because you believe in something, it doesn't make you a horrible person. Narcissa and Lucius, Draco's parents, they donate large amounts to a bunch of causes, they fund research in hospitals, they took me in when my parents died and raised me up as if I was their daughter."

Hermione said nothing and for a while, they sat in awkward and uncomfortable silence.

"What happened to them? Your parents?" She finally asked.

"I don't really know. All I was told was that there was an accident and they died. I tried asking a few times but Narcissa always got sad and Lucius refused to speak of it so I eventually dropped it. Figured it was for the best, you know."

"I'm sorry about that,"

"Yeah, me too but it's okay. I have them and Draco so it's not that bad."

"But it's Malfoy! He's such a jerk," Mila snorted, that was putting it lightly.

"Sometimes yeah, he is but-"

A loud hoot interrupted Mila as a large, pure white eagle owl flew into the view carrying a long parcel before letting go of it. Mila pushed herself up and jumped onto her feet just in time to catch it. Grinning, she put the broom shaped package on the ground and patted her shoulder for the owl to land.

"Who's owl is that?" Hermione asked with small awe. Mila winced as the owl's nails dug into her shoulder to stay in place. Linos was almost three times bigger than an ordinary owl and twice as strong, able to carry bigger packages by himself. His type of breed was slowly decreasing in numbers, which was a shame.

"This is Linos, one of Lucius owls. We have a few of them at home, but he's my favourite." Mila stroked his wing lightly with her fingers. Moving with a large bird on her shoulder wasn't easy, but she managed and tore open the packaging to reveal a brand new, sleek broom. She turned it over to see 'Nimbus 2000' etched into the handle. Milla grinned inspecting it. There was no doubt that Lucius signed the permission form to be on the team if he bought her a brand new broom.

"That looks... expensive," Hermione commented, not really knowing or caring much about brooms.

"Draco is gonna flip," Mila snickered. "This is the newest and fastest model, came out this year." Next, she opened the letter that was inside with the broom.

_'Mila,_

_I trust you won't snap your neck with this. The permission slip is attached, don't forget to pass it on._

_Lucius Malfoy.'_

"Remind me to pass the permission slip to Professor McGonagall," Mila asked as she pulled out a page and dipped her quill into the ink. Quickly she scribbled down:

_'Lucius,_

_Thank you so much! I'll try my best, but no promises._

_Love,_

_Mila.'_

Folding the sheet into half, she passed it to Linos beak. The owl bumped his head against her cheek affectionately before flapping his wings and flying off.

"I still can't believe Professor McGonagall rewarded you and Harry for breaking the rules. That beats the whole purpose of rules," Hermione groaned, slamming her book closed.

"I guess we're lucky. Lunch?" Mila suggested craving something sweet.

"Sure!"

* * *

After lunch, Mila found Draco in the common room, lazying on the couch and watching as two third years played chess. Mila smirked and kicked his outstretched legs, making him jump up and glare at her.

"Bloody hell, Mila!"

"You're such a drama queen Draco, it didn't even hurt." Mila teased him and sat down once he moved his legs to make space.

"Keep doing that and you won't come back here," Draco half threatened.

"You won't believe what Lucius sent me today," Mila boasted with a wide grin. She hadn't tried flying the broom just yet, mostly wanting to show it off to Draco who currently had Comet Two Sixty.

"Oh, what did dear father send you Mila?" Draco mocked her in a high pitch voice, making her roll her eyes at him.

"You are looking at a proud owner of Nimbus Two Thousand."

"No way!" Draco doubted. "You're full of it, Rosier."

"That's not what my dormitory says." Mila took her time to rub it into his face, enjoying every moment of it. Most of the time, they had the same stuff but right now she had something he didn't and it felt good.

"What the hell are we still doing here? Off you go, get it. I want to try it out." Draco rose from his position, eager to get his hands on it.

"Who says you can try it," Mila teased, making no effort to get up. "Last time I checked, the broom is for me because _I_ am on the Quidditch team."

"Shut up and get it," Draco demanded.

"What do I get in exchange?" Mila looked at him with mock innocence.

"What do you want?" Draco exhaled dramatically and crossed his arms.

"That's not how it works."

"Mila."

"You have to offer something. You want something, you offer something in exchange."

"For Merlin's sake."

"I guess you simply just aren't interested in flying the newest model of the broom." Mila sing-songed.

"Fine. I'll do your homework." Draco bargained and Mila snorted in reply. Like hell was that going to happen. He would just force someone to do it for him.

"I'm better at it than you are." She deadpanned.

"You can have my share of mother's baking." He finally relented.

"The next five packages are mine."

"Dream on. Two," He reputed. Mila looked him up and down as if she was considering it. It was worth at least four packages worth of goodies but doubted if he would give up so much.

"Three and a half or no deal,"

"Fine. Now get the hell up and let's go."

Mila finally rose to her feet and approached him.

"Nice dealing business with you Draco," She giggled, outstretching her arm for him to shake. He rolled his eyes but shook her hand, sealing their deal.

"You're a nightmare." He complained, making Mila laugh. Having had enough fun toying with him, she took small mercy on him and led him towards the tower to get the broom. He only walked halfway and demanded she went to get it herself, not stepping anywhere close to the Gryffindor House.

* * *

Soon enough the days started to blur together. Between the lessons, the homework and studies, quidditch practices, spending time with Draco, and extra training, Mila was running pretty dry. After numerous practices with Wood alone, then with Fred and finally with the rest of the team, Wood was satisfied enough with her progress and was confident in letting her take part in the match. It was hard to believe that two whole months had already passed since she got here. While she enjoyed her time here tremendously, she started to miss the Manor too and couldn't wait to go back over the Christmas holidays.

On Halloween morning the whole castle smelled like baked pumpkins. Unfortunately, they still had classes in the afternoon before the big feast. Charms, in particular that day, was a disaster. While making objects levitate sounded fun, professor Flitwick's decision to pair up students with no choice of picking your partner was less thrilling. Whenever Mila had a chance, she paired up with Hermione and their performance was always the best. However, this time she got paired up with Neville and she felt like slamming her head against the wall. The only good part of this arrangement that she could see was that Hermione was just as miserable, if not more while being paired up with Ron.

"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too – never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."

The further the class went on the worse it got. Mila had abandoned any hope of having the damn feather move let alone levitate and at some point moved to the side to avoid Neville poking her eyes out with the way he was flicking his wand.

"You're saying it wrong," Hermione's raised voice caught Mila's attention. "It's Winggar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the "gar" nice and long."

"You do it, then, if you're so clever," Ron rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Their feather rose off the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads.

"Oh, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. "Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!"

Mila smiled at her in congratulations and it only widened as she noticed Ron getting more frustrated by the second.

"Here, I have practice with Fred next, I'll see you later at dinner," Mila told Hermione after the class ended as she packed up her stuff. She still had to run down to the bathroom and change into her athletics clothes before going to the pitch and she had less than half an hour till it was meant to start.

"See you in a bit," Hermione replied, not being in the best mood.

* * *

The practice went on for much longer than she expected. By the end, she was drenched in sweat and in desperate need of a shower. Fred had made his mission to make her his live target today and while she countered most of his throws at her, the bludger hit her in the arm with full speed on one occasion. It was not very fun and she was sure it was going to leave a massive bruise.

With 20 minutes to spare till the feast, she threw all her stuff on her bed, along with her wand, and went for the fastest shower in her entire life.

While Mila was in the shower, Margo jumped onto the bed and laid down, covering Mila's wand with her body. Something that Mila didn't notice as she ran out of the dormitory without looking back.

* * *

"Where's Hermione?" Mila asked once the feast has started and she had yet to see her. Hermione was never late, in fact, she often joined Mila on early breakfasts and lunches so Mila found the lack of appearance rather strange.

"Who cares?" Ron commented with a small snort, his tone irking her. Mila preferred when he didn't open his mouth at all.

"I do. Or are you dumb enough to forget that I just asked?"

"Guys, let's not fight," Harry attempted to quiet them down.

"Last time I heard, she was crying in the girls' bathroom," One of the girls, Parvati Patil replied, listening in to the conversation.

"What did you say to her?" Mila turned to Ron with her eyebrow raised. She had no doubt he has something to do with it.

"Nothing!"

"She might have overheard us talking," Harry admitted with guilt in his voice.

"Clearly you weren't your mother's favorite, Weasley, otherwise she might have found time to teach you how to treat others, especially those who are smarter than you," Mila hissed angrily at Ron, low enough not to get too much attention from others, but it made his cheeks flush bright red nonetheless. Her glare switched to Harry who didn't dare to meet her eyes. "And you, miracle boy, not above putting others down are you?" With that, she got up and stormed out of the Great Hall in favour to find Hermione. She heard Ron remark _'jeeesh_ ' but she didn't think she had time to go back and not make a scene.

It didn't take long to get to the girls' bathroom and to no surprise, one of the stalls was closed shut. She held her breath for a moment to see if anyone was actually there and she got her answer when she heard a small sniffle.

"Hermione, you okay?" Mila felt stupid as she asked but she didn't know what else to say.

"Go away," Hermione's shaky voice replied after a second.

"No can do, can you come out?"

"No,"

"Look I'm not good at this, please come out?" Mila tried again crossing her arms and leaning against the stall's support. Comforting people was not her forte, especially when it came to speaking the words. She was met with silence. She started to rack her brain on how to convince Hermione to come out when a foul smell wafted through the hallways. Mila straightened up. Somewhere nearby, a low grunting sound came through and only grew louder.

"Uh, Hermione? Now is the really good time to get out," Mila gulped and Hermione must have heard something as well because the next moment, the door opened to reveal red-eyed Hermione.

Before Mila could say anything they were faced with a troll. It was at least twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite grey. It had short, thick legs with flat, horny feet and its lumpy body looked like a boulder compared to the small bald head. What scared Mila the most was the huge wooden club ,bigger than her, that the troll was dragging on the ground. They all stood frozen for a millisecond before Hermione gasped in fright and they took a step back instinctively. That's all it took for the troll to react as well and step further in.

Everything erupted into utter chaos. Mila and Hermione shrieked as the troll roared and raised the club and they dashed into different directions to avoid being hit. Mila hid under a row of sinks as the troll hit the club against one of the stalls. She didn't know how but one moment, the door was open and the next it was shut. They were trapped with a grown troll in a small bathroom. That was far from good.

Hermione cried out again and crawled through the stalls to avoid being hit which seemed to only anger the troll more. Dread washed over her as she went to grab for her wand but it wasn't there. They had to get that door open or they were going to be very dead.

Finding a small opening Mila dashed for it, narrowly avoiding being in the troll's field of view. She turned the handle but it didn't budge at all. Slamming her hand against the door in agitation she turned back.

"Hermione!" Mila shouted over the chaos. "Cast the door open!"

But Hermione either didn't hear her or was in too much shock to reply let alone cast a spell. Mila was all out of options, and the troll was fast approaching where Hermione was hiding so she did the one thing that came to mind. Inhaling as deep as she could, she let out the loudest scream she could muster in hopes someone would hear her and come to help.

To Mila's utter relief the door shot open and she was met with Harry and Ron at the other side. They looked just as scared as she felt as they stared at the troll.

"Oh thank Merlin," Mila breathed. "Hermione. She needs help! I don't have my wand."

"Confuse it!" Harry said desperately. He and Ron picked up random pieces from the ground and threw it at the troll. The troll stopped hitting the sinks and turned back to them, staring blankly before lunging for Harry.

" Oy, pea-brain!" Ron yelled as he threw a pipe at its shoulder in hopes to distract it enough which worked. The troll left Harry and started to advance at Ron instead.

"Come on, run, run!" Harry yelled and Mila didn't even have to look at her to know that Hermione was too shocked to follow instructions.

"Distract it! I'll grab her." Mila ordered as she half crouched and slowly made her way around by the walls, trying not to draw its attention to herself. Harry's plan of jumping on top of the troll gave her enough time to get to Hermione and grab her shoulder.

"Hermione!" Mila bit out, drawing the girl's attention. "It's okay, you're okay. We need to go. Come on. Take my hand."

It took her a second but Hermione grabbed her outstretched hand. Mila gave her a small smile and pulled her along the walls, passing the broken stalls towards the exit. Unfortunately, the troll began to twist and flail its club, causing Harry almost fall off and Hermione pulled back in fright and shrunk down to the ground so suddenly that it unbalanced Mila enough for her to lose balance. Mila yelped as her legs and knees made contact with the floor, the glass and broken wood chips piercing her skin.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Ron cried out among the chaos. Mila looked up to see the club flying out of the troll's hand. It rose high up into the air, turned slowly over, and dropped. It made a sickening crack on to its owner's head. The troll swayed on the spot and then fell flat on its face, with a thud that made the whole room tremble. Then the room went dead quiet as no one even dared to breathe for a moment.

Harry got to his feet, shaking and out of breath while Ron was standing there with his wand still raised, staring at what he's done. Mila let out a shaky breath and rose to her feet, pulling Hermione along.

"Is it..dead?" Hermione finally spoke up in a hoarse voice.

"I don't think so," Harry replied, "I think it's just knocked out."

"You okay?" Mila asked, finally catching her breath. The adrenaline was quickly leaving her system, making her feel woozy.

"Yeah...yeah...are you?" Hermione whispered, letting go of her. Mila nodded and ran her freed hand over her hair. This is not how she imagined this evening going. This was crazy.

A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made them all look up at the door. A moment later Professor McGonagall had come bursting into the room, closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear. Mila awkwardly moved over to the back as Quirrell took one look at the troll, let out a faint whimper and sat down on the unbroken toilet, clutching his heart.

Professor Snape bent over the troll to examine it as Professor McGonagall was glaring at Harry and Ron who were closest to her. She looked outright furious and Mila was happy to hang back and not get into her view.

"What on earth were you thinking of?" Professor McGonagall fumed "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?"

Mila watched Professor Snape give a swift, piercing look to Harry before his gaze turned to her. Mila met his stare for a moment before looking away, trying to look nonchalant.

"And you Miss Rosier, care to explain what you are doing here?"

She could still feel his eyes on her as she opened her mouth to explain but Hermione cut her off, making her frown in confusion.

"Please, Professor McGonagall, they were looking for me."

"Miss Granger!"

"I went looking for the troll because I… I thought I could deal with it on my own, you know because I've read all about them. Mila followed me and tried to convince that it was a stupid idea. That's when the troll attacked," Hermione continued and Mila hoped that she didn't look as dumbfounded as she felt. That must have been the stupidest excuse she had ever heard.

"Without them, I'd be dead now. Harry stuck his wand up his nose while Mila came and guided me back to safety and Ron knocked it out with its own club. They didn't have time to fetch anyone."

"Well, in that case…" Professor McGonagall exhaled. "Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?"

Hermione hung her head down and the room fell in silence again. Mila glanced up to Quirrell who was intensely staring at the troll, not speaking a word. He didn't even seem interested in the discussion. Professor Snape looked as if he didn't believe a word of the story as he once more stared at Harry.

"Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this," Professor McGonagall finally spoke again. "I'm very disappointed in you. If you are not hurt at all, you'd better get off to Gryffindor Tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses."

Hermione left without a word. Professor McGonagall turned to them.

"Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first-years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go."

Harry and Ron hurried out of the trashed room and as Mila went to do the same, a voice interrupted her.

"Miss Rosier, with me, please." Professor Snape ordered and left the bathroom. Mila's shoulders sagged and she hastily followed him. Mila had no doubt that by the end of the night Narcissa and Lucius will be informed of today's events.


	6. Chapter 6

"Sir, your leg. Are you alright?" Mila finally interrupted the thick silence as Professor Snape marched towards the dungeons while she tried to keep up with him. She noticed that he was limping halfway through the walk to his office, which she tried to keep it to herself but at some point the silence became unbearable.

"That is none of your concern, Miss Rosier." Came his curt reply as he pushed the door to his office. Mila barely managed to close the door behind her when he pointed for her to sit in the chair by the table.

"Sit." He commanded and she did not hesitate to follow. In hindsight, maybe trying to escape an enormous troll was less scary than being called to his office late in the evening and then being ordered to sit.

Sitting at Professor Snape's office was strange. The office was a gloomy and dimly lit room. The shadowy walls were lined with shelves of large glass jars filled with various samples of bits of animals and plants, floating in potions of varying colours. The office had a fireplace and in a corner, there was a cupboard containing Professor Snape's private stock of potions and ingredients. It had an eerie feel to it. He sat down in his chair.

"What doesn't cease to amaze me, Miss Rosier," Professor Snape drawled out. "Is that on the one night when a troll is loose on the grounds, you, Miss Granger, Mister Weasley and Mister Potter are all conveniently found not following the rules set for your safety. Even more astonishing is that on this particular night Miss Granger, who is among one of the smartest people in the year, chose to have a lapse of judgment and seek out the said troll for her own amusement."

"Yeah," Mila scratched the back of her head awkwardly. "Sometimes weird things do just happen."

The excuse Hermione gave sounded unbelievable even to her own ears. Merlin, even the excuse that everyone needed to use the bathroom at the same time would have been more believable than Hermione going to look for a troll.

"The truth. Now."

"Hermione was upset in the bathroom," Mila sighed. "I went to check on her. The troll came in and I'm not sure what happened, but the door slammed shut. Eventually, Harry and Ron opened the door and Harry distracted the troll enough so that Ron could levitate its club to knock it out. Then ye found us."

"Why did neither you nor Miss Granger use your wands to unlock the door? I imagine even Mister Longbottom would be able to muster enough magic to perform it, let alone you two."

"Hermione was in shock and I uh…" Mila trailed off, not wanting to admit her shortcomings to the fight. Professor Snape's interrogation was so similar to Lucius's that it was frightening. It was as if she was back at home trying to explain the sudden and mysterious appearance of ink smudges in one of Lucius's books that she was told not to touch.

"You what, Miss Rosier?" Professor Snape raised his eyebrow in question.

"I didn't have my wand with me." Mila mumbled quietly, averting her eyes.

"Why did you not have it?"

"I forgot." Merlin, this was embarrassing.

The office became quiet for a few minutes.

"You...forgot." The condescension on the last word alone made her look up at him sharply.

"Yes sir, I forgot. It won't happen again."

"I sure hope not. I would also hope that such events do not repeat, ever."

"Are you going to tell them?" Mila finally asked in a low voice what she really wanted to know. She had a feeling she already knew the answer to that, but there was still hope.

"Undoubtedly." Well, there went that hope.

"That's so not fair." She mumbled under her breath without thinking.

"What did you say?"

"I said that's not fair. I'm not in Slytherin, Professor McGonagall is meant to deal with us. Why do my guardians get told, but others don't?"

"Brilliant observation, Miss Rosier but unfortunately for you, the Malfoys are your guardians which makes you my responsibility which also means that if I decide Lucius and Narcissa need to be informed about your behavior, then they will be. I do not tolerate children who believe that they are exempt from rules and authority and it is in your best interest not to become one of them."

Severus rose from his seat and walked over to the cupboard. He soon returned with a small bottle that was barely filled with anything and passed it to her.

"Sir?" Mila asked as she took it and turned it over, but it had no label or directions.

"Don't swallow it. I'm certain you'll figure out what it is." Professor Snape smirked smugly. "Do not be late for my class, Miss Rosier. Heroism or scraped knees does not mean I tolerate tardiness."

Mila blinked in confusion, wondering if he was dismissing her or not. Her question was answered when he waved his hand for her to get out.

"Um thank you, sir." She muttered and dashed out of his office, clutching the bottle. Outside the door, Mila looked at the bottle. It was purple in colour and she could already tell that it had a harsh smell. She smirked, appreciating the challenge. He didn't bother to tell her what it was or how to use it. Pocketing the potion into her pocket, she walked back to the Gryffindor tower, avoiding any roaming prefects along the way.

As they entered November, the weather turned very cold. The mountains around the school became icy grey and the lake was like chilled steel. Every morning the ground was covered in frost. Which meant that Margo who did not have fur to keep her warm was not pleased, and Mila's solution was to ask Narcissa to get small jumpers for her. Currently, she wore a thick knitted mustard yellow jumper and Mila thought she looked adorable.

"She looks stupid." Draco informed Mila the moment he saw her at the breakfast table on the day of the quidditch match. Mila was dressed in her normal uniform as it was still very early in the morning.

"What?" She asked with a raised spoon of cereal halfway to her mouth. She had no idea what he was talking about. He also chose to be a jerk and stand behind her so that she would have to crank her neck to look at him.

"Margo. She looks stupid in yellow," Draco remarked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Okay, and you care because?" Mila asked with a raised eyebrow. This was way too early.

"Because I don't like to be associated with stupid looking stuff."

"You associate with Pansy." She snorted and dropped the spoon back into the bowl and pushed it aside. She then turned in her seat so she could face him.

"Not the point." He retorted but didn't bother to deny her statement, which Mila found amusing.

"What is the point again?" Mila asked.

"The point is that, if you end up plummeting down today, Margo would become mine and she looks stupid with those jumpers that you're putting her into." Oh, Mila realized. He was worried about her. That was so sweet.

"You know you can sit down?" She suggested seeing as he didn't seem to move anytime soon.

"I would rather drink poison." Nonetheless, he looked around the table.

"Nobody from our year is here yet," She added innocently. He still didn't move, so she added. "Please?"

"Fine. This could be your last wish for all we know," He sighed dramatically but finally complied and swung his legs over and joined her table. Mila grinned in victory.

"Such confidence in me Draco, thanks." She deadpanned as she reached for a chocolate-filled croissant.

"I'm just saying," He shrugged in reply and took a green apple off the table.

"Awh, Draco, look at you eating Gryffindor's food. I'm proud," Mila snickered.

"Shut up or I will jinx your broom to kill you." Draco half threatened and proceeded to bite into it. This was nice. She wished they could do that more often.

"Also, Draco?"

"Hm?"

"Even if I die, you are not getting Margo in any way, shape or form."

"You've got to eat some breakfast." Mila lifted her attention from her book to see Harry playing around with his food while Hermione tried to get him to actually eat it. He looked like he was about to be sick and she suspected he was nervous about the match. Not that she blamed him. If she got introduced to a sport she had never heard of before and then was expected to be a key player in it months later, she would probably be nervous too.

"I don't want anything."

"Just a bit of toast," Hermione insisted, but it wasn't working. Mila was tempted to say something to Harry, but then again they haven't really spoken since the troll accident. Not directly, at least. Whenever they were in a close proximity, Hermione was always there and apart from questions about their homework, they didn't converse. Even in quidditch practices, they rarely spent time together. So instead, Mila simply just listened to the conversation.

"Harry, you need your strength. Seekers are always the ones who get nobbled by the other team." Seamus Finnigan joined the conversation as he proceeded to pour a disgusting amount of ketchup on his sausages.

"Thanks, Seamus," Harry muttered and attempted to eat a scrambled egg.

"And you, Mila," Hermione turned to her, much to her surprise.

"What did I do?" She raised her eyebrow.

"You must eat as well."

"Don't even look at me. I have been here since seven." Mila excused herself and poured herself a cup of pumpkin juice. There was only half an hour left until they had to depart for the game and Mila was determined to pass the time as quickly as possible.

By eleven o'clock everyone on the Gryffindor's team had changed into their scarlet Quidditch robes and were gathering in the guys' changing room for the last few words before the match. Wood stood up and cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.

"Okay, men," He started but was interrupted by Angelina.

"And women," She added, which made Mila smile lightly, seeing as there were more girls on the team than guys this year.

"And women," Wood repeated in agreement. "This is it. The big one."

"The one we've always been waiting for," Fred mimicked Wood's voice loud enough for everyone to hear. Both Mila and Harry looked up at him in confusion.

"George and I know Oliver's speech by heart." He shrugged. "We were on the team last year."

"Fred do shut up." Wood snapped back at him, trying to gain everyone's attention solely on him. "This is the best team Gryffindor's had in years. We're going to win. I know it"

With a last glare that said 'do as I say or else' they were off. Mila walked beside Fred, carrying her broom in her left and the bat in her dominant hand.

"I'll forgive you this round if you get knocked down," Fred half-shouted to her over the loud cheers of people as they walked out into the pitch.

"And I won't let you live it down if you go down before me." Mila grinned, feeling the excitement and adrenaline pumping through her veins. This time she was feeling the good adrenaline, unlike with the troll accident. Instead of being scared like last time, she felt confident and eager.

"Good luck." He added as they stopped in the middle of the pitch.

Madam Hooch was refereeing. She stood in the middle of the pitch, waiting for the two teams, her broom in her hand.

"Now, I want a nice fair game, all of you." She demanded, looking at each and every player, her gaze lingering on Marcus Flint, the Slytherin's captain. Mila took the time to look at the Slytherin team as well, trying to analyze them. She especially noted Lucian Bole and Peregrine Derrick, the Slytherin's beaters who were really the only ones that posed any threat to her. They both were twice the size of her, but she was confident that she could outmaneuver them.

"Mount your brooms, please." Mila did as told and held the bat in a bit of an awkward angle so that she could hold it and the broom with both hands until she was in the air.

Madam Hooch gave a loud blast on her silver whistle. Fifteen brooms rose up high into the air. They were off.

The first few minutes were pure chaos as the cheers escalated, balls were thrown and thirty brooms flew in every direction to get into position. Gaining enough height, Mila wrapped her legs tightly around the broom which wasn't very comfortable but it gave her enough security so that she could soar without holding the handle with both of her hands.

"And the Quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor – what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive, too –" A voice boomed through the microphones which she presumed belonged to Fred's friend, Lee.

"JORDAN!"

"Sorry, Professor."

As much as Mila would have enjoyed listening to his comments, it would have been too distracting, so she tried her best to block it out and focus on what was happening in front of her. Spotting the black iron balls wasn't that hard, especially when they aggressively attacked anyone on the broom. Gripping the handle of the bat as hard as she could, Mila drifted by Angelina who was fast approaching the goals with the Quaffle and swung the bat against the Bludger. The impact was powerful enough to wobble her broom and the Bludger bounced back in the opposite direction. With no obstacles left, Angelina scored the goal and Mila flew after the other Bludger. The game kept at a fast pace and she defended as much as she could. Seeing a chance for offense, she soared after one of the Bludgers and aimed the bat so when it made contact, the Bludger would be shot at one of the Slytherin Chaser's back.

"Nice one!" Fred hollered as it indeed shot the Chaser, getting the Quaffle back into Gryffindor's hands. Feeling quite proud, Mila looped around the pitch and unfortunately caught the attention of Lucian Bole. She noticed that he trailed near enough from her and looked around for any sight of a Bludger and once he was close enough, he aimed it at her. Mila suddenly jerked the broom to the right and missed getting hit by it. However, it got the Bludger shooting dangerously close past Harry, who fortunately managed to escape it. Seeing Fred chase after it, she moved on to the next one. The announcement of the Snitch appearance got everyone's attention for a moment and everyone stopped mid-air to look for it.

Mila hissed in sympathy as Marcus Flint blocked Harry at the last moment, making him span off the course. It earned Slytherin a foul, and Mila was determined to at least attempt knocking Flint off the broom at some point during the game. After fifteen minutes she got that chance when she was higher in the air than him and shot the approaching Bludger down at a steep angle. He noticed it at the last moment and dodged, but it hit the end of his broom nonetheless, getting him off course for the moment. From the corner of her eye, she noticed Harry's broom jerk in a harsh and unnatural way. Keeping one eye on the game and another on Harry, she glided over to him when his broom shook and lurched in a different direction again.

"Harry, alright?" She called out when she was close enough to his earshot. He looked up from his broom, his panicked eyes meeting hers,

"I can't control it!" He shouted and clenched his hands tighter around the broomstick. The moment Mila moved closer to him, the broom vibrated harder than before, making her back off in fear of it throwing him off.

"Hold tight!" Mila looked around for anyone close enough and dashed to get their attention. She noticed Katie not too far.

"Where's Wood?" Trying to catch someone's attention against the wind at a fast speed wasn't easy and Katie didn't hear her first time.

"KATIE!" Mila bellowed as loud as she humanly could, but it got her attention. She looked back over her shoulder in question.

"WOOD. TIME OUT!" With that, Mila pointed at Harry's direction. Katie must have seen that something was off because the next moment she nodded and turned in a different direction.

Mila flew back to Harry, and stopped her broom several feet underneath him, just in case he got thrown off. Her bat was getting in the way so after looking around for any Bludgers, she dropped it, figuring that if they got a time out, she'd pick it up again. It didn't take long for other players and watchers to notice that something was in fact wrong. Fred was the first to fly over and Mila was relieved to see him. Together it would be easier to catch him if the worst scenario came true.

"What's going on?" Fred asked alarmed as he pulled beside her and watched Harry who was dangling on by one hand.

"Can't get closer to him, his broom goes wilder. Where's Wood?"

"Getting Hooch."

Suddenly, the wild jerks of Harry's broom stopped completely. Mila finally relaxed, seeing Harry climb back up. What she did not expect him to do however was to dart past her and Fred with his hand clapped to his mouth. Fred and she shared a look of confusion, but it didn't last long. Harry spat and held out the Golden Snitch, waving it over his head. The crowd erupted into cheers. They won. They actually won by one hundred and seventy points according to Lee. Mila high-fived Fred before descending. Gryffindor was in the lead.

"Um...Mila?" She heard her name being called and turned around to see Harry standing behind her.

"Thanks for what you did up there. I don't know what would have happened to me if you weren't there."

"Oh," Mila mumbled in surprise. "Yeah, no worries. That's what the team is for."

"Me, Hermione and Ron are going over to Hagrid's for tea, you should come too."

"Okay, sure. Mila agreed before really thinking about it.

So that was how she ended up sitting in the cramped hut with a cup of strong tea, surrounded by Hagrid, Hermione, Harry and worst of all Ron. She began to question her whole existence as Ron insisted on how it was Professor Snape who tried to throw Harry off his broom.

"It was Snape," Ron repeated. "Hermione and I saw him. He was cursing your broomstick, muttering, he wouldn't take his eyes off you."

"Rubbish," Hagrid interjected. "Why would Snape do somethin' like that?"

Mila noticed the brief glance they all shared before Harry spoke up.

"I found out something about him," Harry finally answered. "He tried to get past that three-headed dog at Halloween. It bit him. We think he was trying to steal whatever it's guarding."

Hagrid dropped the teapot and Mila narrowed her eyes. That was new.

"How do you know about Fluffy?" he said.

"Fluffy?"

"Yeah – he's mine – bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year – I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the –" Everyone looked at him in question.

'Yes?' said Harry eagerly.

"Now, don't ask me any more," said Hagrid gruffly. "That's top-secret, that is."

"But Snape's trying to steal it."

"We don't know that," Mila interrupted before it could go further down into their little conspiracy.

"Rubbish," Hagrid agreed with her. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do nothin' of the sort."

"So why did he just try and kill Harry?" cried Hermione.

"We don't know that either!" Mila raised her voice a fraction in protest. Merlin, this was getting irritating. It was one thing to dislike someone, but it was entirely different to accuse someone of attempted murder.

"I know a jinx when I see one, Mila! I've read all about them! You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking at all, I saw him!"

"There were hundreds of people in the pitch, anyone could have been jinxing. Just because you found one person not looking away from the match or from whatever the hell Harry's broom was doing doesn't mean you found the bad guy. Merlin, I wasn't pulling my eyes off Harry either, does that mean I was jinxing him? No." Mila sighed, exasperated.

"Then why did it stop when I lit Snape's robes?" Hermione didn't back down.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because arson does distract more than just one person." Mila finally snapped. The hut became dead silent for a moment and Hermione looked taken back.

"I'm sorry," Mila sighed. "But ye are jumping to conclusions without having or knowing all the facts."

"I ha'vta agree with Mila, yer wrong" Hagrid spoke again "I don' know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student! Now, listen to me, all three of yeh – yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel –"

Everyone's eyes turned to Hagrid at once. The look of regret on his face meant that he told way too much.

"Aha!" said Harry. "So there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved, is there?"

"Oh would yeh look at the time," Hagrid spoke as he stood up and opened the door of the hut. "Ye must go befor' ye get in trouble."

Seeing as the conversation would not return to the topic again, they bid their goodbyes and exited his hut. On the way back to the castle, they stayed quiet, all deep in thoughts of today's events. Mila couldn't shake the feeling that the name sounded familiar. Maybe she had read of him before or heard about him from Lucius. She made a mental note to send him a letter later on and ask seeing that he never minded her questions relating to learning. She also figured that she and Hermione will spend even more time in the library than before.


	7. Chapter 7

Christmas was coming. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. On the way to classes, Mila and Hermione observed the Weasley twins bewitching several snowballs so they would follow Quirrell around and attack, bouncing off the back of his turban. Later on, they found out that they got lengthy detention for that, but in Mila's opinion it was worth the price to see Quirrell run around.

Mila couldn't wait to go home. While the castle decorated itself to look festive and all the fireplaces were lit with roaring fires, it didn't feel the same way that home did around this time. While they never decorated the Manor very much, they still had a huge Christmas tree by the warm fireplace and it felt like home. She had started to count down the days until they would board the train.

"I do feel sorry," Draco announced during one of the last Potions class, "for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home."

Mila snorted as she scribbled the notes from Professor Snape's board. She made sure to write every single word the man ever put on that board since he never taught from the book directly. He asked some theoretical principles or the history of the potion that they were learning that day from the book but for the practical aspect of the lesson; he scribbled on the board. Draco, on the other hand, was not in the mood to learn that day. Instead, he focused the whole morning and afternoon making jokes at Harry. She suspected that he was jealous of the new wave of attention that Harry had received from winning the match while Draco couldn't even try out yet. To her surprise, Harry chose not to reply but try to work instead. Something he never did in Potions.

Mila along with Crabbe and Goyle waited behind for Draco as he lazily took his time packing his bag at the end of the class. She had a free period and was planning to spend it with Hermione along with Harry and Ron while Draco had History of Magic in twenty minutes. When they finally left the dungeons, their path was blocked by Hagrid dragging a large fir tree while Harry, Ron and Hermione were chatting with him.

"Would you mind moving out of the way?" Draco demanded loudly. Merlin was he in a poor mood. "Are you trying to earn some extra money, Weasley? Hoping to be gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts, I suppose that hut of Hagrid's must seem like a palace compared to what your family's used to."

Everything happened at once. Before anyone could say anything else, Ron dived at him and on instinct, Mila drew out her wand and pointed it at him ready to jinx if he dared to do anything else to Draco. Harry took a step back at her quick movement and so did Hermione. It was also bad timing that Professor Snape chose that moment to come up the stairs as well.

"WEASLEY!"

Hearing Professor Snape, Ron let go of Draco's robes, but Mila was slower to lower her wand.

"He was provoked, Professor Snape," Hagrid spoke as he stuck his face out from behind the tree. "Malfoy was insultin' his family."

"Be that as it may, fighting is against Hogwarts rules, Hagrid. So is a blatant wand pointing at others," said Snape silkily. "Ten points from Gryffindor, Weasley, Rosier and be grateful it isn't more. Move along, all of you."

Draco with Crabbe and Goyle gave her a long look before roughly pushing past the tree which caused the needles to scatter everywhere.

"I'll get him," Ron threatened, and Mila clutched her wand tighter before putting it away. "one of these days, I'll get him –"

"I hate them both," Harry agreed, "Malfoy and Snape."

"And here I was wondering why would they ever hate you two," She sneered sarcastically, feeling the anger wash over her in waves. "Excuse me, before I throttle both of you and we lose more points."

Within an hour in the library, the silence was interrupted by Ron, Harry and Hermione. She spared them a glance but did not speak to them. She was still fuming with Harry and Ron's comments. It was weird how rocky their friendship was, one day they all were mates and the next one of them would say something stupid and then they were back in square one.

Nonetheless, she refused to give in and start the conversation. Instead, she let them suffer just a little bit and did not mention that Lucius wrote back saying that he knew something about Nicolas Flamel.

On the last night, Mila and Hermione were triple checking to ensure that they wouldn't leave anything behind. The train was going to leave right after breakfast and Mila didn't plan to run around at the last moment in search of her stuff.

"Here," Mila passed her a folded note after she closed her luggage for the last time. Everything was packed.

"What is this?" Hermione asked curiously as she glanced at it. On it, there was an address neatly scribbled down along with a word. 'Otters'.

"Nickname for you so you could send me letters over holidays," Mila explained and shrugged. "If you want to, that is. No pressure, though."

Mila suddenly realised that she and Hermione never talked about talking about writing to each other when they were out of the castle. Maybe Hermione didn't want to write to her over the holidays. If she didn't, this conversation was about to get really awkward.

Before Mila could overthink the note, arms wrapped around her and she was pulled into a hug. It took her a second to comprehend what was happening and then returned the hug.

"I'll miss you so much," Hermione mumbled and Mila could hear her voice tearing up.

"I'll miss you too."

The train back to King's Cross Station was miserable. Unfortunately, she had to sit with Draco's gang for the entirety of the ride and it did not help that it was an almost seven-hour journey.

Reading a book to ignore your surroundings could only take you so far.

The small peace among the group got interrupted the moment the boys went to change to their regular clothes halfway through the journey. Mila and Pansy were left alone.

"So," Pansy drawled out staring at her. "How do you think the Malfoys will react when they find out you hang out with mudbloods and blood traitors?"

"They're not going to find out anything." Mila looked away from the window to her. "Also, I don't believe it is any of your business in any way."

"Someone could always let it slip out to them." The innocent tone made Mila frown.

"Are you trying to threaten me?" She raised her eyebrow in challenge, wondering if Pansy would ever be so stupid.

"Of course not. I'm just saying that there are always possibilities."

"You know what, Pansy?" Mila straightened up and smiled sweetly. "It's so funny that you think anyone cares what you think or say."

"Draco does."

"Oh, I'm sure that's true." Mila scoffed and turned to get her clothes from her trunk.

"He does. Besides, you wouldn't know anything anyway since you're always with them mudbloods. He fancies me."

"Really? He fancies you?" Mila actually laughed at the thought of that happening. "Is that why he always hangs out with me?"

"He only hangs out with you because he has to. Charities make you look good in front of others." Pansy hissed out. Mila felt as if her heart fell down to her stomach and she reached for her wand. She could see Pansy stiffening a little and fidget in her seat.

"Want to repeat that Parkinson?" Mila hissed out and pointed the wand at her.

"As if you would do anything."

"Try me." Mila challenged.

"I'll tell Draco,"

"Who's he going to believe Parkinson, someone he grew up with and sees every day or some obsessed girl?"

"At least I'm not a nutcase like all of your dead family."

"What did you say?"

"I said you are as crazy as your mother Rosier. Or did they not tell you?"

"Mucus ad Nauseam."

"You bitch!" Pansy screamed, clutching her face as she futilely tried to stop her runny nose.

"Next time, it won't just be a small curse." With that, Mila opened the door of their compartment and slammed it shut. Putting the wand back in place, she clutched her clothes tightly in her arms and stormed down towards the bathrooms. She met Draco and his gang halfway.

"Alright, Mila?" He asked, eyebrows furrowed. She didn't meet her eyes but stepped to the side to get by.

"Fine."

And if she sniffled and if her eyes were redder than usual, it was a coincidence. Nothing more.

Mila continued to be fine throughout the rest of the train ride, even if she didn't chat that much. She was fine when they got off and found Narcissa and Lucius waiting for them further away from people. She was also fine when Narcissa pulled her in for a hug, and when Lucius briefly put his hand on her shoulder as they navigated through the crowds of people. In short, she was absolutely fine and Pansy's words meant nothing.

"Honey, food is for eating, not playing with it," Narcissa called out during dinner. Mila had zoned out once Draco started to talk about Hogwarts and she absently was dragging her food around the plate.

"Sorry." She mumbled and took a small bite out of the roast. She could feel everyone's eyes on her as Draco stopped talking as well.

"Is everything alright? You have been quiet all evening." Narcissa asked, her voice laced with concern.

"Yeah, just tired." Mila lied, not lifting her eyes from her plate. "May I be excused?"

"If you regain your appetite, later on, call for Dobby." Lucius dismissed her and Mila left the table without wasting time. As she climbed up the stairs, she could hear Lucius voice.

"Did something happen Draco?" She didn't stay long enough to hear the reply.

Mila huffed as she planted herself into her bed. Pansy's words refused to leave her brain, no matter how much she tried to forget about it. She briefly wondered if Pansy's parents fixed the curse yet. She hoped they didn't. Mila glanced where Margo was and tried to pet her but she was having none of it. With a low hiss, she jumped off the bed and left the room.

"Great." Mila groaned and covered her eyes with her elbow. Even her cat abandoned her. The day just kept getting better and better.

Mila must have dozed off at some point because one minute she closed her eyes and then the next, she jumped at the sound of knocking against the door. A moment later, Narcissa entered her room, holding a cup.

"Thought you might enjoy something warm," Narcissa smiled kindly and put the cup by the bedside table. Mila could smell the aroma of mint tea.

"Thank you," Mila breathed out, feeling a large amount of guilt as she looked at the tea. She should have been downstairs, enjoying a nice Christmas Eve with her family, but here she was, mopping around because some stupid girl said something mean to her.

"Are you sure you are feeling alright?" Narcissa asked again and touched her forehead. The act alone made her eyes burn.

"Mhm," Mila hummed, not daring to speak in fear that her voice would crack and then she would have to explain what happened and what happened was just stupid.

"You know if it's girl stuff you can always speak to me right?"

"Yeah. No, it's not that!" Mila's cheeks flushed bright red in embarrassment. They had that kind of conversation before the start of Hogwarts and Mila wanted to die during it.

"Alright," Narcissa smiled. "Do you feel like coming downstairs with me? Draco and Lucius were planning to play some chess, and the fire is lit."

Her coaxing was slowly working on Mila, but she was still torn so she merely shrugged in response.

"Well, if you change your mind, you are always welcome to join." Narcissa reminded her and with a light caress through her hair, she stood up to leave. Suddenly, the thought of being alone sounded so much worse.

"Narcissa?" Mila asked quietly before the woman could leave.

"Yes, dear?"

"Did you…" She paused, trying to find the right words. She could feel Narcissa sitting down on the bed again but did not dare to look at her. "Was I ever a charity case?"

"Where is this coming from?" Mila once again just shrugged her shoulders and toyed with the hem of the blanket.

"Mila, look at me, please." At the command, their eyes met.

"Just something Pansy mentioned,"

"And how did it come up?"

"When Draco left to change on the train Pansy was bragging how Draco fancied her and I said that he hangs out with me more. Then she said he only did that to look good in front of others because I was a charity."

"You should know better than to listen to what a Parkinson is babbling about." Narcissa gently scolded. "But to answer the question, of course not, honey. You are as much our daughter as Draco is our son."

Mila sniffled and tangled her arms around the woman's waist, burying her head to her side.

"There is no reason to be upset Mila," She kept her eyes closed and relaxed at the feeling of Narcissa's hands going through her hair.

"I'm sorry," Mila mumbled through the tears as her shoulders shook lightly.

"There will always be people that try to bring you down because they are scared of someone being better than them. You're part of two of the twenty-eight purest families and you are a very bright, young witch. Someone will always say something mean to you. You need to keep your chin high and know that you are better than them all. No matter what they say, it's just words."

Few minutes passed before Mila roughly wiped her eyes and moved away. Her nose felt stuffed and eyes were swollen when she reached for the abandoned mug and took a sip.

"Feeling better?" Narcissa asked to which Mila nodded shyly. "Good. Go wash up and we will go downstairs."

After what felt eternity splashing her face with water, Mila and Narcissa moved downstairs. Just like Narcissa said, Lucius and Draco sat opposite of each other on the couches by the fireplace with a chessboard on the table. Wordlessly, Draco moved to the side so she could fit to play the game. Their gaze met and it felt like they had an understanding; he wasn't going to ask and she wasn't going to apologize for ignoring him for half the day.

"Feel like participating Mila?" Lucius asked as he sat cross-legged with a glass of expensive Blishen's Firewhisky in his hand.

"Yeah. Knight to E2." Mila smiled and commanded the figure.

"What? No!" Draco protested in a playful manner.

"Bold move." Lucius commented before making his turn.

By the end of the evening, Draco and Mila won a grand number of zero games against Lucius and later on Narcissa, who finally joined the game after Draco and Mila whined her into it. For the most part, Narcissa sat on the arm of the couch with Lucius's hand loosely around her, and made occasional sneaky choices to make the game harder. Mila didn't mind losing one bit because they were all having fun and enjoying the evening. Before drifting asleep that night, Mila decided that over her dead body would Pansy see any part of that, let alone experience it. This was her family.

Christmas day flew by in the blink of an eye. It was the only day of the year where Draco got up extra early without complaining. It became some sort of a ritual over the years where he and Mila met up in her room to discuss what they think they got and then sneak downstairs to inspect the gifts. They could only open their gifts after breakfast, but that didn't mean they couldn't investigate beforehand.

"Thank Merlin!" Draco hissed out seeing a broom-shaped package sitting under the tree.

"Maybe it's for me. I'm in the Quidditch team, after all." Mila teased him, seeing the excitement on his face.

"Shut up Mila, you have your own. We have to play a few matches today to see what it can really do." Draco rolled his eyes as he went through the pile.

"We know what it can do. I fly around with it all the time." Mila whispered as she too joined in the search for her presents. They ended up counting six presents each and after examining them, they tried to put everything back in place before sneaking back upstairs.

The moment they were dismissed from the breakfast table, Mila and Draco dashed for their presents. As expected, Draco got his own Nimbus 2000, a new and more expensive chess set as he managed to keep his set from breaking for a full year and smaller items such as a box of his favourite sweets, expensive robes and a collection of books about Quidditch. Surprisingly, what took his attention the most was the old, silver pocket watch that belonged to his grandfather.

Meanwhile, Mila received a new collection of novels from her favourite author, a beautiful set of Malachite earrings as well as her own box of candy, new robes, a writing set and a beautiful wand holder. She inspected it closer. It was made of such dark green material that it appeared almost black and it had a snake etched into it along with the Malfoy family crest.

"It is enchanted so that when your wand is not used, it gets summoned and is placed where it belongs." Lucius explained, observing her.

"It only happened once," Mila groaned but tried it out nonetheless. As was expected, the wand flew through the air from her bedroom and into the holder.

"That is one too many times, Mila. You're a witch, not some common mudblood to forget your wand."

The afternoon was spent in the air, filled with Quidditch one-on-ones as well as tricks with a lot of showing off as Mila and Draco tried to outperform each other. Finally, when the weather got too chilly and the sun started to set, they went inside to warm up. Another festive dinner was made by the elves and after desert, they moved to get more comfortable on the couches. Once again Christmas was great.

Waking up on her birthday always felt weird to Mila. She never understood how a certain date in the year was meant to make her older and more mature. Nonetheless, on January 7th, the day before they had to go back to Hogwarts, Mila woke up as a twelve-year-old. On that morning she dressed in a navy blue dress that ended by her knees and let her hair hang in their natural waves.

After breakfast, she received the most beautiful necklace she has ever seen in her life from Narcissa. It contained a dazzling green faceted Cirolit stone in the centre with a sparkling chain of white Cirolit stones. It matched perfectly with her new earrings as well, which was an added bonus. Narcissa looked almost sad as she clasped the necklace around Mila's neck and looked at her for a long moment.

"What?" Mila asked shyly, feeling exposed under her gaze.

"Nothing dear. You just look like your mother did when she was your age."

Mila didn't know how to respond to that, she never did so she did the best thing she could which was to smile and change the subject.

"So who was Nicolas Flamel?" Mila asked eagerly the moment she stepped into Lucius's office. She had been dying to ask that question since the Christmas day but between then and now he had been too busy to discuss it.

"He's a wizard from France, quite a famous alchemist. Got popular around the fourteenth-century." Lucius spoke not lifting his attention from the letter that he was writing. At least Mila thought it was a letter.

"Wait, you said he is a wizard from France. He's still alive?" Mila double-checked staring at him in surprise.

"Very good. According to sources, he was so skilled in Alchemy that he managed to create Philosopher's Stone from which he obtained the Elixir of Life which he used on himself and his wife to escape death and live on for centuries. The stone supposedly can also turn any metal into pure gold."

Oh! Mila realised. That's the thing that Fluffy was guarding. The revelation answered one question but then gave another ten in return. It still made no sense as to why it was in Hogwarts in the first place and who would want to steal it. One thing for sure was that Professor Snape trying to steal it, as Harry and Ron insisted, still made no sense.

"So, if you had the stone you could live forever?"

"In theory, yes."

"Then why don't we use it?" Mila inquired. "I mean if we know such a thing exists, why don't we use it? Nobody would need to die. It would erase poverty, half the world's problems would be solved!" Her little outburst made him look at her.

"Because the world does not work like that Mila," He explained. "If you took the stone and used it to make everything gold, within a month it would become worthless. The gold itself rotted within years of being created, and that is not even the main purpose of the stone. Magic like the Elixir of Life does not come without a price. There had been letters and books written speculating what effects it would have on the wizard, and they're not something you would desire."

"Oh." Mila sighed, disappointed.

"Why are you asking anyway?" Lucius enquired.

"Just something I heard older students discussing. Was curious." Mila shrugged her shoulders, sounding as innocent as she could. She didn't know what would happen if she told him that she suspected that the stone might actually be in the castle and she wasn't about to find out.

"I see."

"So can I have my present now?" Mila grinned, sitting up in the chair. Since she was eight, Lucius showed her new spells and last year he actually taught her how to perform them so that she could practise them in Hogwarts and be just a little bit ahead of everyone else.

"If you insist."

=-=-=


	8. Chapter 8

Coming back to Hogwarts after the Christmas holidays felt like the busiest time in the year. The pace of the lessons had picked up, the homework had increased and the Quidditch practice had started immediately. The second day back felt so overwhelming that Mila wanted nothing more than just to jump into her bed and sleep for the next three days. The only highlight of it was that she could see Hermione again.

"You're about to love me for the rest of your life," Mila whispered teasingly to Hermione as they sat through the History of Magic which was the only lesson that seemed to slow down even more than it already was.

"Unless you wrote the whole essay for Professor Binns, then I don't think so," Hermione whispered back as she stared at the textbook without blinking with her hand propped up to hold her head.

"So I guess you don't want to know who Nicolas Flamel is?"

"What?!" Hermione asked out loud, which made everyone's attentions turn to their table.

"Girls, is there something you want to share with the whole classroom?" Professor Binns spoke as he too turned to them.

"No sir, we just read ahead and couldn't believe the outcome of 'Werewolf Code of Conduct'" Mila responded, keeping the straightest face that she could and hoped for the best. She had no idea what happened at the end of the chapter, nor she wished to find out period, let alone from reading ahead. The answer, however, seemed to have satisfied the teacher.

"Please stay with the class girls, you don't want to miss anything important."

Mila and Hermione smiled sheepishly until the professor's attention turned back to the book. Mila grinned and mouthed 'I'll tell you later'. For the rest of the class, she could feel Hermione glance at her from time to time.

"Tell me everything!" She demanded the moment the class was over.

"Tell you what?" Harry asked as he and Ron joined them.

"Mila figured out who Nicolas Flamel is," Hermione muttered lowly with a wide grin. Mila smiled as well, feeling quite proud since none of them had found out anything over the holidays.

"Really? Who is he?" Ron asked surprised, not bothering to whisper.

"Not so loud!" Mila hissed. Most of the students had already departed but there were still a few hanging nearby, "We need to talk in private."

They didn't have time to talk in private until later on in the evening as both Mila and Harry had Quidditch practice during the afternoon. Wood was working the team harder than ever. Even the endless rain that had replaced the snow couldn't dampen his spirits. Mila thought he went insane over the holidays. Sure the next game was important, if they won against Hufflepuff, they would overtake Slytherin in the House Championship for the first time in seven years but it was getting ridiculous. Mila was already soaked and dirty when Wood gave the team the bad news. She and Fred were messing around here and there to keep up everyone's spirits, which seemed to only anger Wood further.

"Will you stop messing around!" He finally snapped. "That's exactly the sort of thing that'll lose us the match! Snape's refereeing this time, and he'll be looking for any excuse to knock points off Gryffindor!"

Fred nearly fell off his broom at the news, which Mila found quite funny. Looking across the team, everyone had a similar disgusted expression.

"Snape's refereeing?" he spluttered. "When's he ever refereed a Quidditch match? He's not going to be fair if we might overtake Slytherin."

Mila was the last to touch down onto the ground while everyone simultaneously erupted in complaints.

"It's not my fault," Wood shouted over everyone. "We've just got to make sure we play a clean game, so Snape hasn't got an excuse to pick on us."

The practice soon was over. Mila and Harry headed straight towards the Common Room where they found Ron and Hermione playing chess. Mila only needed to take a glance at the board for a second to know Hermione could never recover the game to win. She took a seat next to her.

"I'd just give up now Hermione. You're hopeless." Mila advised, kicking off her soaked shoes. She really needed to change.

"Don't talk to me for a moment," Ron said when Harry sat down next to him. Harry, meanwhile, looked just as miserable as he did when he found out Professor Snape was going to referee. Ron also caught on to it. "What's the matter with you? You look terrible."

Harry mumbled out the story of what will happen in the next match. Milla rolled her eyes at their horror-filled faces. Such theatrics.

"Don't play," said Hermione at once.

"Say you're ill," said Ron.

"Pretend to break your leg," Hermione suggested as she up on the game.

"Really break your leg," Ron proposed.

"I can't," said Harry. "There isn't a reserve Seeker. If I back out, Gryffindor can't play at all."

"All of you are blowing this up way worse than it actually is. Relax," Mila sighed dramatically. She shifted in her seat, trying to think of a way to change the conversation.

"So do ye want to know about Flamel or not?"

"Yes!" All three of them replied instantly. Mila smiled. The topic was changed.

"So," She beamed. "Flamel is apparently a six-hundred-year-old alchemist who created the Philosopher's stone which -"

"Stay here!" Hermione interrupted in a shout and dashed upstairs. Mila watched her disappear before turning to the boys.

"Well, there goes my story."

They barely blinked before she was dashing back with an enormous old book in her arms. She quickly turned the pages until she found the right one and passed it to them to read.

'The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with

making the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary

substance with astonishing powers. The Stone

will transform any metal into pure gold. It also

produces the Elixir of Life, which will make

the drinker immortal.

There have been many reports of the Philosopher's

Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently

in existence belongs to Mr Nicolas Flamel, the noted

alchemist and opera-lover. Mr Flamel, who

celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday

last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife,

Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight)'

"A stone that makes gold and stops you ever dying!" Harry exclaimed once he finished reading. "No wonder Snape's after it! Anyone would want it."

"Apparently it's not that easy. Lucius said that there were studies made about how the gold started to rot after a long time and that the elixir itself causes trouble to the wizards that use it. Some side effects or something. Not pretty stuff." Mila explained, crossing her arms.

"That's what Malfoys want you to think. It's probably a lie." Ron protested instantly, which made Mila roll her eyes in annoyance.

"We are literally one of the richest families in the entire country Ron, why would Lucius lie about the value of something like that?" Mila asked with a raised eyebrow. Merlin help her to have patience for this.

"I don't know why do Malfoys always lie?" He scoffed loudly.

"Oh, that's rich. I'm sorry Ron, what contribution are you bringing to this group again? Cause so far I don't see it,"

"Guys, now is not the time," Harry interjected, closing the book shut.

"Harry's right, we need to figure out what we are going to do and how we are going to stop professor Snape from stealing it." Hermione agreed, which made Mila look at her.

"Professor Snape?" she asked, exasperated.

"Yes, Mila, Professor Snape or were you not paying attention when he tried to kill Harry?" Ron spoke slowly as if she was too dumb to understand.

"That's your theory Ron, we don't know what happened." She countered.

"Yes, we do. Snape tried to kill Harry."

"For Merlin's sake, Ron! Think! Why would a professor attempt to kill a child in front of the entire school? Almost every teacher was present! Also, do you really think he wants what? Gold? He's a Potions Master in Hogwarts I bet that pays more than well."

"Guys!" Hermione interrupted. "Enough arguments."

"We need a plan on how to protect the stone." Harry hissed out quietly. Mila sighed and nodded. While she didn't believe it was Professor Snape, someone was clearly attempting something. Her arguments with Ron could wait until she could rub his nose into her being right.

At that moment, Neville toppled into the common room. His legs had been stuck together with what they recognized at once as the Leg-Locker Curse. He must have had to bunny hop all the way up to Gryffindor Tower. The thought of that made Mila laugh, and she wasn't the only one. Everyone fell about laughing except Hermione, who leapt up and performed the counter-curse. Neville's legs sprang apart and he got to his feet, trembling.

"What happened?" Hermione asked him, leading him over to sit with them.

"Malfoy," Neville muttered out shakily. "I met him outside the library. He said he'd been looking for someone to practice that on."

Mila rolled her eyes. Draco knew how to be a drama queen when he wanted.

"Go to Professor McGonagall!" Hermione urged him. "Report Him! Sorry, Mila."

Mila just shrugged her shoulders while Neville shook his head.

"I don't want more trouble," he mumbled.

"You've got to stand up to him, Neville!" Ron seethed. "He's used to

walking all over people, but that's no reason to lie down in front of him and make it easier."

"Watch it, Weasley." Mila gave him a glare.

"There's no need to tell me I'm not brave enough to be in Gryffindor, Malfoy's already done that," Neville choked. Mila felt a little bad for the kid.

Harry passed him a Chocolate Frog and for a moment he looked as though he might cry.

"You're worth twelve of Malfoy," Harry chimed and Mila wondered briefly if he would ever disagree with Ron. "The Sorting Hat chose you for Gryffindor, didn't it? And where's Malfoy? In stinking Slytherin."

Mila and Hermione shared a look. She knew how much Mila wanted to be in Slytherin. How much she still wanted to be in it. Neville's lips twitched in a weak smile as he unwrapped the Frog.

"Thanks, Harry ... I think I'll go to bed ... D'you want the card, you collect them, don't you?"

As Neville walked away Harry looked at the Famous Wizard card.

"Dumbledore again," Harry mumbled. "He was the first one I ever– oh. There's Flamel."

"Should have eaten your frog sooner." Mila chuckled.

The closer it got to the match, the more unrest there was among the team. On the day of the match, Mila woke up with so much excitement for the game, she was sure her day could not be ruined. Harry seemed to not share the same sentiment. If it was even possible, he looked even paler than on the first match. Even Hermione and Ron seemed worried for him and Mila somewhat overheard their plans in stopping Professor Snape if he attempted anything, but she zoned out most of it.

"How are we feeling today?" Fred asked just as Mila was tying her shoes. She looked up and smiled.

"Absolutely fantastic. You ready?"

"Oh girl, I'm always ready for some good game, even if Snape is refereeing." Fred grinned as he picked up his broom.

"Stop it, it will be just grand." Mila rolled her eyes and went to look outside. It was absolutely packed. Fred joined and whistled.

"The whole school's out there!" He called out to the rest of the team. "Even – blimey – Dumbledore's come to watch!"

Mila looked around until her eyes found the man. Apart from the feast at the beginning of the year, she hadn't seen him around. She wondered why he chose to join this particular match. Maybe he was also supervising the game.

The game itself was pretty smooth for the most part. At one part, Mila miscalculated her aim and the Bludger almost hit Professor Snape instead of one of the chasers for which he rewarded her with a penalty. Fred hollered with laughter, witnessing it. She noticed Harry doing dives towards the ground in search of the Snitch and then the game was over. While Mila was happy and clapped with everyone else, she wished the game could have been longer.

"Ready junior?" Fred called out once they landed. Mila looked behind where she saw Dumbledore speak to Harry.

"Yeah, let's go!" Mila shouted back and caught up with him. She made a mental note to ask Harry about it later on.

Mila waited around in the changing rooms until Harry reappeared. She smiled, it didn't look like he noticed her there.

"Yo, Harry!" She called out, making him jump. He abruptly turned to her.

"Oh! It's you," He sounded relieved.

"What's the plan?" She asked curiously, trying to make small talk. Mila was waiting for an opportunity to ask about the Mirror of Erised without everyone overhearing. She was dying to know what her truest desire was, ever since he told about his discovery.

"Just going to put the broom away, what about you?"

"Great!" Mila smiled, not answering his question. "I'll walk with you."

They walked through the damp grass in silence, enjoying the quiet moment. The air felt crisp and lovely for the first time in a good while. They reached the shed and deposited their brooms. Mila was still inside when Harry called out for her silently.

"Mila! Look!" He pointed and Mila followed his direction until she noticed the hooded figure briskly walking towards Forbidden Forest.

"That's Snape!" He hissed. "We need to follow him."

Mila watched for another moment and nodded. She was curious as to what was going on as well. Wordlessly, they took their brooms and kicked off into the air, making sure they were far away to not be noticed. Flying through the Forbidden Forest was more difficult than she thought. The thick leaves kept getting in her way and for a while, she lost sight of the figure. They looped around in circles, lower each time until they finally heard voices. Mila followed behind Harry as he glided towards where the voices came from and landed on a towering beech tree nearby.

Below, in a shadowy clearing, stood Professor Snape, but he wasn't alone. Mila frowned, noticing that Professor Quirrell was there too. He was stuttering worse than ever and Mile briefly wondered as to what the hell he was doing in the middle of the forest. She and Harry shared a look before climbing along the branches to listen in.

"... d-don't know why you wanted t-t-to meet here of all p-places, Severus …"

"Oh, I thought we'd keep this private," Professor Snape responded in an icy tone. "Students aren't supposed to know about the Philosopher's Stone, after all."

Mila frowned, trying to make sense of what Quirrell was mumbling about under his breath but Snape interrupted him.

"Have you found out how to get past that beast of Hagrid's yet?"

"B-b-but Severus, I –"

"You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell," Professor Snape hissed out, taking a step towards him.

"I-I don-t know what you –"

"You know perfectly well what I mean."

An owl hooted loudly, startling Mila. She looked back down to hear Snape say, "– your little bit of hocus pocus. I'm waiting."

"B-but I d-d-don't –"

"Very well," Professor Snape cut him off again "We'll have another little chat soon, when you've had time to think things over and decided where your loyalties lie."

He threw his cloak over his head and strode out of the clearing. It was almost dark now, but she could see Quirrell, standing quite still as though he was petrified.

She signaled Harry to leave and they flew off as quickly as they could. Mila kept looking back over her shoulder to make sure nothing and no one was following them. Only when they were back inside the castle's walls did they dear to speak.

"Well…" Mila breathed out, trying to catch her breath. "That was..something."

"Now do you believe us that Snape's after the stone?" Harry whispered, his eyes darting between the halls.

"I don't know what I believe anymore. Nothing makes sense." She responded honestly.

"We should go back to the Common Room. Let the others know." He suggested and was turning to go. This was her last chance.

"Wait, Harry," She stopped him by grabbing hold of his arm. "I need to ask you a favour."

"What is it?" He asked curiously, looking at her. She hesitated a moment before sighing.

"I want you to lead me to the Mirror of Erised."

"Oh!" Harry gasped. "Uh, I would-, sure, but Dumbledore said he moved it and I don't know where it is anymore. Sorry, Mila."

Disappointment filled her but she nodded and tried to give a small smile. There went her hope.

"That's okay, it's not your fault. Thanks anyway."

The moment they stepped into the Gryffindor Tower, Hermione and Ron were in their faces. Mila took a step back at their speed.

"Harry! Mila! Where have you been?" Hermione squeaked at the same time as Ron shouted.

"We won! You won! We won!" he thumped Harry on the back. "And I gave Malfoy a black eye and Neville tried to take on Crabbe and Goyle sin-"

"You did what?" Mila roared, cutting him off. Ron blinked and a second later his face turned into 'oh shit' expression.

"W-Well he deserved it and -"

"Mila No!"

"Guys!"

But it was too late. Mila grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him backward, ramming him into the stone wall. She didn't even feel herself grabbing for her wand, but a second later it was resting against his neck. She had never seen Ron so shocked. If she wasn't so mad she might have found it funny.

"If you ever touch him again. If you even look at him in a way I don't like, Weasley," Mila hissed out. "I will curse you so far out, none of your family will ever find you. And don't worry I know how, I'm Lucius's favourite and I am the smart one. Are we clear?"

Ron nodded frantically, his face twisting in fear. She slowly lowered her wand and let go of him. She could feel Hermione and Harry stare at the back of her head.

"Um..." Hermione mumbled, not sure what to say. The air among them was tense. Nobody said anything for a moment.

"Let's find an empty room, you wait 'til you hear this…" Harry finally mumbled out, not meeting her eyes, and he wasn't the only one.

They found a room in silence, and once they ensure that Peeves wasn't in sight, Harry recounted what happened.

"So we were right, it is the Philosopher's Stone, and Snape's trying to force Quirrell to help him get it. He asked if he knew how to get past Fluffy – and he said something about Quirrell's 'hocuspocus' – I reckon there are other things guarding the stone apart from Fluffy, loads of enchantments, probably, and Quirrell would have done some anti-Dark Arts spell which Snape needs to break through –"

"So, you mean the Stone's only safe as long as Quirrell stands up to Snape?" Hermione whispered in fear.

"It'll be gone by next Tuesday," Ron concluded, his voice still shaky.


	9. Chapter 9

To everyone's surprise, Quirrell proved to be braver than anyone would have thought by not cracking under pressure, albeit getting paler and thinner. Mila along with Hermione, Harry and Ron found themselves walking by the third-floor corridor at least once a day to ensure that Fluffy was still growling behind the door. It was also an assurance that Professor Snape acted no differently and continued to do his rounds and lessons as normal.

"Smooth guys, real smooth," Mila rolled her eyes after Harry smiled at Quirrell for the fifth day in the row, making the poor man stutter worse than before.

"He's on our side Mila, we are being nice." Ron muttered, picking up food on his fork. They all sat huddled up together, further away from people so that no one would overhear them. Lunch became one of the small breaks between studying that Mila could afford.

"Nice? Ye are making the poor man shake in his boots," Mila responded as she glanced across the table over to Hermione, who was too busy reading her notes to eat her meal. She kicked her leg gently under the table to get her attention.

"What?" Hermione asked, not looking up as she mouthed the words under her breath.

"It's lunchtime Hermione. Eat," She pointed out, taking another bite from her pasta.

"Yeah Hermione, the exams are ages away, anyway." Ron agreed. Mila noticed that he was doing that more often as if trying not to get on her bad side again.

"Ten weeks," Hermione glared at them. "That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel."

"But we're not six hundred years old," Ron reminded her. "What are you revising for? You two already know it all."

"That's debatable." Mila scoffed, pushing the plate away. A moment later, the plate disappeared off the table.

"What am I revising for? Are you mad? You do realize that we need to pass these exams to get into the second year? They're very important, I should have started studying a month ago, I don't know what's got into me." Hermione stressed out, on the verge of pulling her hair.

"Eat something," Mila reminded her. "And just you wait till all the teachers give us revision."

Mila's words came true in the next couple of days. At first it was just a couple of questions here and there, but soon enough they were swimming in essays and chapters that needed to be read. After the sixth day in a row of intense studying, Mila thought she was seeing words from her textbooks in her vision. She was Hermione's friend, so that meant she sat for hours with her and patiently asked her questions related to whatever subject that they were focusing on that day and double-checked that the information was correct. She was also Draco's family, which meant that she sat for hours with him and did the same and sometimes taught him what he didn't understand. She was about to lose it when Harry and Ron came to her and Hermione looking for tips on how to revise.

"I'll never remember this," Ron burst out one afternoon throwing down his quill and looking longingly out of the library window. Mila lifted her head up from her arms and blinked her eyes tiredly. In the last few days she managed to get around four hours of sleep each night, preferring to stay up later and memorize everything that she could. It felt like a security blanket to wake up and be able to list precisely the amount of milliliters of flobberworm mucus required before and after stirring to create Wiggenweld Potion or the important names that favored the revolt of Elfric the Eager. But it also left her exhausted.

"You should have started studying early like us," Mila smirked. The irony was not lost on her. She looked up as Hagrid walked into the cramped library that was filled with students.

"Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?" Ron called out once he noticed him as well. He looked very out of place both by his size and his attire, and he was holding something behind his back.

"Jus' lookin'," he said in a shifty voice and frowned at them. "An' what're you lot up ter? Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"

"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago," Ron replied proudly. "And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Philosopher's St–"

Mila kicked him under the table before he could finish the sentence. He yelped but didn't finish it.

"Shhhh!" Hagrid looked around quickly to see if anyone was listening."Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?"

"There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact," Harry spoke up, "about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy –"

Harry also got kicked under the table by both Mila and Hermione.

"SHHHH!" said Hagrid hissed at the same time. "Listen – come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here, students aren' s'posed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh –"

"See you later, then," Harry muttered, his voice much quieter this time.

Hagrid shuffled off.

"What was he hiding behind his back?" Hermione asked curiously as she watched him leave.

"If it isn't questions that appear on the exam, I don't care," Mila mumbled, closing her eyes and laying her head on her arms again.

"Maybe it's something to do with the stone?" Harry mused out loud.

"I'm going to see what section he was in," Ron offered and dashed out of his seat within a second. Mila only looked up once a book slammed loudly on their table.

"Dragons!" He whispered excitedly, "Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons! Look at these: 'Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland''; From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide'."

"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him," Harry joined in.

"It's a crime to breed dragons. Do you think that's what he's doing?" Mila asked, rubbing her face. If it was indeed what Hagrid was up to, Mila had no doubt that the gang would be interested in it and that meant even more work for her.

"Exactly! It was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It's hard to stop Muggles noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden – anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania."

"But there aren't wild dragons in Britain?" Harry wondered.

"Of course there are," Ron rolled his eyes. "Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you. Our lot have to keep putting spells on Muggles who've spotted them, to make them forget."

"So what on earth's Hagrid up to?" Hermione raised her eyebrow.

An hour later, the four of them found themselves in front of Hagrid's hut. To their surprise, all the curtains were closed shut and it took a while for him to open the door.

"Who is it?" He called out hesitantly and only after Harry announced his name, he let them in and immediately closed the door behind them.

Mila was instantly taken by the stifling heat inside the hut, it was almost hard to breathe. Hagrid remained dead silent and mysterious as he made them cups of tea.

"So – yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?" Hagrid murmured, distracted. Mila felt that they weren't very welcome here and shifted in her seat uncomfortably.

"Yes," Harry was the first to respond. "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Philosopher's Stone apart from Fluffy."

Hagrid took a good look at him and shook his head.

"O' course I can't. Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts – I s'pose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."

"Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on round here," Hermione spoke in a warm, flattering voice. Hagrid's beard twitched and they could tell he was smiling. "We only wondered who had done the guarding, wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."

Mila grinned at her in encouragement. For a girl who self doubted, she sure could flatter people up when needed.

"Well, I don' s'pose it could hurt ter tell yeh that ... let's see ... he borrowed Fluffy from me ... then some o' the teachers did enchantments ... Professor Sprout – Professor Flitwick – Professor McGonagall –" he ticked them off on his fingers, "Professor Quirrell – an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."

"Snape?" Harry and Ron exclaimed alarmed in union.

"Yeah – yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."

"It's obviously going to be something related to potions." Mila muttered to herself. She really hoped it was something simple and that they already studied, but knowing Professor Snape, it was anything but that. Her gaze glanced and then focused on the burning fireplace. She zoned out whatever Harry said next and rose from her seat to move closer to the burning kettle.

"Don' touch that!" Hagrid shouted at Mila as she raised her hand towards the kettle. She smirked. So that's where the egg was.

"Why? What's in it?" Mila asked innocently as she turned and looked at him. Hagrid fiddled his beard nervously before sighing.

"That's...er…"

"Where did you get it?" Ron cut him off as he moved towards the kettle. She could see the excitement on his face so she moved to the side to let him in.

"Won it," Hagrid replied proudly, "Las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest."

"Does that happen a lot? People playing cards and betting wild animals?" Mila raised her eyebrow curiously. While she could not imagine Lucius stepping inside such an establishment in a thousand years, she had no doubt that he would win every single animal on offer.

"Sometimes, depen' on who comes," Hagrid shrugged his shoulders.

"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched?" Hermione's question made Mila look up at her. Shit.

"Well, I've bin doin' some readin," Hagrid replied, pulling a large book under his pillow. "Got this outta the library – Dragon- Breeding for Pleasure and Profit – it's a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breathe on 'em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here – how ter recognise diff'rent eggs – what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."

"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house," Hermione pointed out, not impressed at all with his solution. But Hagrid wasn't listening. He was humming merrily as he stoked the fire. Mila groaned.

Mila felt like hitting her head against a wall numerous times in the next few days. The workload of homework only increased and trying to figure out how to hide an illegal dragon did not help the situation. It also didn't help that Harry and Ron kept complaining and going stir crazy over their revision timetable that Hermione created. At least Draco was smart enough not to complain to her, although she could feel his eyes on her more than once.

"Let's play cards." Draco declared, shutting his book loudly. They sat across his bed in the Slytherin boys' dormitory with the curtains shut and a silencing charm in place. It was early enough in the evening that most of the guys were out but Mila was not going to take chances in someone snooping around. She had no doubt that if Pansy knew she was here, she would come running to listen in.

"Can't, have to improve on the Flintifors," Mila groaned, glaring at the feather she had in her hand. The more she tried to cast it into a matchbox the worse it seemed to be turning out.

"Yeah, it's because you aren't concentrating on it." Draco rolled his eyes and pulled out his deck. The know-it-all voice he sometimes used without realising pushed her nerves over the edge.

"Thanks Draco! Thank you very much! All my problems are bloody solved!" Mila's annoyance exploded as she threw the feather down onto the ground. She sighed a moment later and ran her hand across her face.

"I'm sorry, I'm just stressed." Mila apologized once she caught her breath, putting her wand away.

"Whatever," Draco shrugged as he started to mix and deal the cards. He paused midway and looked away.

"The world won't end if you take a day off from books Mila. Just so you know," he cleared his throat and pushed the cards over to her. "Start the game."

Instead of starting the game, she looked at him for a good moment, feeling her eyes moisten just a bit. She had no idea how he knew to say the right thing when she needed it. She stared long enough for him to look at her and raise his eyebrow.

"What?" He called out. Mila shook her head and shifted closer so she could wrap her arms around him. She could feel him stiffen up for a moment before he awkwardly hugged her back. Hugging wasn't a thing they did. She finally moved back and cleared her throat, hoping her cheeks weren't burning bright red. She drew a card.

"Your turn."

Two days later, Mila watched Hedwig fly to them early in the morning carrying a small note in its beak. Hagrid had written two words: 'It's hatching'. The note however brought in an argument among the group on what to do next. Ron wanted to go immediately and skip Herbology, Harry couldn't decide and Hermione looked like she wanted to hit Ron across his head with a book at his suggestion.

"Hermione is right," Mila sided with her as she tried her best to drink the cup of coffee she made. So far it was disgusting and she wanted to spit out every single sip. "Plus, you really don't want to miss the revision, it could come up on the exam."

"But guys, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?"

"Well, it's our first year so if Hagrid keeps up playing cards in random pubs I'd say another six times easy," Mila grinned.

"Shut up!" Harry hissed and nodded his head towards Draco who stood a few feet away and stopped talking to listen in. Mila looked away. She felt guilty for not telling him about what Hagrid was hiding, she really did but his relationship with the rest of the gang was complicated. She wondered if she could ever get them to at least act civil with each other.

"Come guys, let's go," Ron muttered standing up from the table. With a sigh, Mila followed him along with Hermione and Harry. She saw Draco watching her, but she had no time to go and talk to him. They had a lesson to catch.

By the end of the class, they decided that they would all go down during the morning break. When the bell sounded from the castle at the end of their lesson, the three of them dropped their trowels at once and hurried through the grounds to the edge of the Forest. Hagrid greeted them looking flushed and excited.

"It's nearly out." He ushered them inside.

The hut was still boiling hot and Mila wished she didn't have to wear the full uniform. The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks in it. Something was moving inside; a funny clicking noise was coming from it. Mila pulled the chair close to the table and watched it. All at once there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. The baby dragon flopped on to the table. Its spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jet body and it had a long snout with wide nostrils, stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes.

Mila jumped up at its sneeze. A couple of sparks flew out of its snout.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid grinned with pride. Mila hummed, and just so happened to look up at the window to see Draco watching in.

"Shit!" Mila groaned and rose from the chair. She ignored everyone's questions and opened the door to only find him too far. She could already feel in the pit of her stomach that not telling him was going to bite her back.

Draco proceeded to ignore her for the next few days, no matter how much she tried to talk to him. The lack of response made her more irritable and she knew she should have felt bad about snapping at Harry twice and even Hermione wasn't spared from her temper, although luckily she didn't take it to heart.

"For Merlin's sake, Draco! Can you speak to me!" Mila grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him back before he could leave the Potions classroom at the end of the lesson. It made him stumble back and almost fall over the stool.

"Bloody hell! Mila!" He growled, turning back to her. He pulled his arm out of her grasp and fixed his uniform.

"Will you talk to me now?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"What for?" He drawled out, making her roll her eyes.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because we live together and you're my best friend? Not to mention my family?"

"Really?" He snorted. "That's why you chose saint Potter over me? Because I'm your best friend?"

"I didn't choose anything!" Mila insisted anxiously. It felt like she was being forced into choosing sides between him and her friends. Neither of which she wanted to abandon.

"Fine. Why didn't you tell me about the bloody dragon that the mutt is keeping?"

"Because Draco! You don't get along with them, which isn't all of their faults if you must know." Mila sighed deeply, casting her eyes away. There was a pause and then he inhaled sharply.

"As I said, you picked Potter's side. See you around Rosier."

With that, Draco pulled his bag and left. Mila watched him leave and glared at the floor. She kicked the stool down in frustration and grabbed her bag before leaving as well.

Mila was not surprised at all that keeping an illegal dragon came with a cost. While Mila lost some interest in it once Draco stopped talking to her she did not miss the news that Ron got bitten by it. His hand kept looking worse and worse until Harry and Hermione convinced him to go to Madam Pomfrey.

Mila gripped her book tighter and pretended to be far more interested in it than she was at the end of the day when Harry and Hermione were getting ready to visit Ron in the hospital wing.

"Mila you coming?" Hermione called out when she didn't rise from her bed in the dormitory.

"Um, no." She mumbled, flicking a page enthusiastically. "Hospitals ain't my thing."

"Please? I'm sure Ron would appreciate you coming."

"Oh I'm sure." Mila snorted. "But I can't. Do give my regards, though."

"Fine," Hermione sighed, clearly disappointed. "But you are coming at Midnight on Saturday, right?"

"Of course. Now go, Harry is probably getting very impatient."

Moments later Mila was left alone. Even Margo seemed to have picked a side as she was nowhere to be seen and Mila had a sneaking suspicion that she was with Draco. Brilliant.

Mila couldn't muster up feeling sorry for Hagrid's last goodbye to the dragon. Partly because it was a very dark, cloudy night which made the whole deal a lot creepier and partly because they were breaking so many rules and could be caught any moment. The plan was for her to keep a lookout ahead of Harry and Hermione, who were hiding with the dragon behind the invisibility cloak. While the cloak provided them with invisibility, it did nothing to cover the sound of a living dragon, so Mila had to ensure that the paths were clear before they could move. She ignored Hagrid's sobs and urged them to move on.

By some miracle, they managed to get themselves back into the castle. Midnight ticked nearer as they heaved the dragon up the marble staircase in the Entrance Hall and along the dark corridors. Mila stopped in her tracks the moment she saw two figures in front. On pure instinct, she shrank out of sight into the shadows. She cursed under her breath, seeing Professor McGonagall holding Draco by his shoulder.

"Detention!" Mila flinched at her shout. "'And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you –"

"You don't understand, Professor. Harry Potter's coming – he's got a dragon!" Draco was trying to defend himself, slightly cowering from her.

"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on – I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!"

She started to drag him away, and Mila remembered his words. He thought she picked Harry, Hermione and Ron over him. Standing in the middle of the hallway felt like she had to choose. She could either run after them and try to find a good enough excuse to get him out of the trouble, or she could help the trio send the dragon off.

"Mila!" Hermione whispered to get her attention and Mila closed her eyes, feeling her heart drop to her stomach. She hoped that they would understand. She didn't want to lose them, but if it came to picking between their friendship and Draco's, her mind was made. It would always be Draco that would come first, no matter what.

She turned to where she thought they were hiding under the cloak.

"I'm sorry." She whispered and she meant it. Especially to Hermione.

Before they could respond she broke into the run to catch up with Professor McGonagall. She would think of something along the way, she was sure.

At least that was the new plan until two corners later she almost crashed into someone's body.

"Well, well, well," Filch's distinct voice drew out which made her blood freeze. "What have we got here?"


	10. Chapter 10

Professor McGonagall's office never felt so far away. Filch kept muttering under his breath over and over again while attempting to restrain her by grabbing onto her arm.

"Touch me again and Lucius Malfoy will hear about this. You'll be out of the castle by sunrise." Mila growled, yanking her arm out of his hold and staying out of reach.

"You won't get away with breaking the rules. Think you can run away from me? Such a pity they let old punishments die out or ye would learn quickly not to disobey." Mila frowned at how wistful he sounded.

"I'm not running anywhere, keep your hands off me." She rebuked, wrapping her arms around herself. She wasn't scared per se, but having a stranger, especially a man reach to grab her brought a sense of dread in the pit of her stomach. She promised herself that if he tried that again, she would tell Lucius immediately and he would deal with it.

Seeing the door to Professor McGonagall's office caused a sense of relief to wash over her, something she wasn't expecting. She watched as Filch barged into the office without knocking, something she was not about to do. So, she obediently stood outside the door until Professor McGonagall showed up, looking furious.

"What is the meaning of this Miss Rosier?" She demanded, opening the door further and letting her in. Once she was in the office which was a small room with a large, welcoming fire, Professor McGonagall motioned for her to sit in the chair beside Draco who looked astonished at her appearance.

"Well?" Professor McGonagall demanded as she sat down in front of them.

"I uh…" Mila glanced at Draco for a second. "Well, I was looking for Draco, Professor."

"Oh?" Professor McGonagall spluttered. "And what was so important that you found the need to speak to Mr Malfoy at one in the morning? It better be good."

Before Mila could open her mouth again, the door burst open again, causing everyone to turn to the new arrival. Filch held Neville by his arm and dragged him inside.

"Got another one, loitering the halls" He grinned, as if proud of himself. Mila looked at Draco questioningly but he shrugged in reply. The night was getting better and better.

"Mr. Longbottom, what in Merlin's beard are you doing out of bed?" Professor McGonagall demanded, sounding exasperated and absolutely done with all of them.

"I uh… I thought…" Neville stammered, looking mortified. Maybe Hermione wasn't the only one who was terrified of getting caught. Mila shifted in her seat and looked at the fireplace. While the attention was off her for the moment, she had no doubt that she was off the hook. While her brain was turning clogs to figure out an excuse, she didn't notice her name being called until someone grabbed her arm and shook it.

"What?" Mila breathed, seeing everyone stare at her. Draco slowly let go of her arm.

"I asked for your excuse, Mila" Professor McGonagall repeated.

"Oh. I heard that someone made up a rumor that Harry, Ron and Hermione of all people had a dragon or something on the grounds and lied about it to Draco. I was trying to get to him just in case he believed it and got in trouble. That's when Filch grabbed me." Mila didn't break eye contact with her, making her voice as even as she could to make it believable. Professor McGonagall looked at her for a moment longer before turning to Draco.

"Is that what happened?"

"Yes. It seems I was mistaken." Draco hesitated for just a second, but it seemed to have worked.

"Well," Professor McGonagall began. "Rumours or not, you two were still out of bed and should have known better. Fifty points will be taken off Gryffindor as well as detention that will be issued at a later date. Mr. Malfoy, you already know your punishment. Off you go, straight to bed. If I find out you two disobeyed, the punishment will be doubled."

Mila and Draco did not hesitate to dart out of their chairs and out the door.

"Not you, Mr. Longbottom." Mila heard Professor McGonagall say right before the door shut behind them. Wordlessly, they walked through a couple of hallways just in case Filch stormed in again.

"What was that?" Draco hissed out once they were safely out of the ear reach.

"I believe it was me saving your arse," Mila retorted, stuffing her hands into the pockets.

"Well, I didn't need you to."

"Sure you didn't. Goodnight, Draco." She replied, stifling a yawn and took off with the intention of getting to her bed and passing out for at least two days. She thought she heard him say 'night' but she couldn't have been too sure.

Once she made up the stairs to her dormitory, she didn't bother to change out of her uniform. She barely managed to kick off her shoes before her head hit the pillow and with that, she was out instantly, not even noticing that Hermione's bed was still empty.

Mila, unfortunately, woke up to a messy morning. Not only did she wake up late, but she also couldn't find the energy to change into a fresh pair of uniform, which meant that for the first time in the year her clothes weren't perfectly ironed. She pulled her hair in a messy ponytail and rushed to catch some breakfast or something that would keep her awake all day.

The Great Hall was what Mila could only describe as chaotic. She could feel a lot of eyes from various tables staring at her as she made her way to their usual spot. She found Harry, Hermione and Ron looking miserable, not lifting their eyes up from the table as she sat down.

"What's with the long face?" Mila asked, pouring herself a cup of coffee and adding milk to it. Hermione tilted her head to where the giant hour-glasses stood displaying the score.

"Oh," Mila breathed, catching up. No wonder people stared at her. "Ye got caught as well."

"It was horrible. Professor McGonagall was fuming!" Hermione groaned, placing her head in her hands. Mila took a sip and patted Hermione's back with her other hand in sympathy.

"So what happened? Did ye manage to get it to Charlie?" Mila asked curiously.

"Yeah, that went without a problem. We even made it halfway back but then Filch showed up and caught us. Now everyone hates us and we got detention." Harry sighed in disappointment.

"I see. Well, Draco and I also got detention. It could have been worse I suppose. Imagine getting caught with the dragon."

"Don't even say that. We would have been expelled immediately." Hermione mumbled.

"See? This is nothing," Mila shrugged, hoping they would cheer up. They did not.

"It's not nothing. Everyone already heard about it and knows it was us. They hate us." Harry stressed, pushing his plate away. She looked at him curiously; this was the second time he mentioned that they'd be hated. She couldn't figure out why.

"So?" Mila raised her eyebrow.

"So?" Hermione repeated, finally lifting her head. "It doesn't bother you that people are going to blame you? That Gryffindor might actually lose the House Cup?"

"It's just points, Hermione. We can always win them back." She shrugged. "Besides, I think we should worry more about the exams, not what others might say."

At the mention of exams, Hermione groaned louder and laid her head on the table.

"What are you doing here?" Harry hissed out the moment he saw Draco coming up to them. Mila looked up, noticing him as well. He, unlike her, did in fact change his clothes and took time to ensure that not even one hair was out of place.

"Nobody asked you, Potter." Draco rolled his eyes at him and turned to her before pulling out a small box. He dropped it beside her. "You look terrible,"

"Ain't you a sunshine today," Mila shook her head but accepted the box.

"We're studying in the Common Room at four. Don't be late." Draco announced and walked away without waiting for a reply. Mila didn't bother to watch him leave, choosing to grab something to eat instead.

"What was that about?" Hermione asked once he was gone.

"His way of offering peace," Mila chuckled, adding sugar to her porridge. "I guess we are speaking again after last night."

"Oh," Hermione frowned. "Both of you are weird. No offense."

"Trust me I know,"

"Wait, you and Malfoy weren't speaking?" Harry asked, baffled. Hermione and Mila grinned, sharing a look. He didn't have the faintest idea of how she and Draco worked.

"It's a long story, Harry." She shrugged in reply and put the box in her bag, knowing that the candy would be gone before the classes were over.

Throughout the day, Mila could feel eyes on her wherever she went, but no one dared to say anything about her. It was almost funny seeing everyone go silent immediately whenever she stepped into a room. She wasn't stupid. She knew it was partly because of her family that nobody wanted to get on her bad side and the other part was because of Slytherin's newfound love for her. Hearing that Mila was part of the reason as to why Slytherin was in the lead again, caused some of the older students to keep an eye out for her. The same treatment was not given to Harry. She felt kind of bad that people chose to openly insult him from time to time when it wasn't warranted. That was until his guilt complex led him to offer his resignation from Quidditch. Mila swore on Merlin's beard that if he had quit the team because he lost some points, she would have found him and beat the sense back into him. Fortunately, Wood seemed to agree with her that it was a stupid idea.

"Resign?" Wood thundered. "What good'll that do? How are we going to get any points back if we can't win at Quidditch?"

Even after Wood somewhat forgave him, the practice was tense. Nobody wanted to speak to him, and if they had to, they referred to him as 'seeker'. She could tell that Fred was pissed at her as well, but since they had to work closely together, he couldn't ignore her or mumble out half-answers.

Life finally settled down to somewhat normal during the week and a half before the exams. All the revision he kept everyone's mind off the loss of points. Mila along with Hermione, Harry and Ron kept to themselves for the most part, working late into the night, trying to remember the ingredients in complicated potions, learn charms and spells off by heart, memorise the dates of magical discoveries and goblin rebellions. It also helped that everything she learned she would solidify by revising it all over with Draco to the point where she felt that she could do the exams in her sleep.

Mila shouldn't have felt surprised that their newfound peace fell apart within a week due to Harry overhearing Quirrell and Professor Snape. Mila was watching Hermione question Ron about Astronomy when Harry barged in and shattered their concentration.

"Snape's done it, then!" Ron instantly concluded. "If Quirrell's told him how to break his Anti-Dark Force spell –"

"There's still Fluffy, though," Hermione reminded. Mila just sighed and picked up her quill with the intention to doodle until the topic changed. She was sick of telling them that it wasn't Professor Snape and wasn't in the mood to waste her breath on something that she was going to be ignored on.

"Maybe Snape's found out how to get past him without asking Hagrid," said Ron, looking up at the thousands of books surrounding them.

"Go to Dumbledore. That's what we should have done ages ago. If we try anything ourselves we'll be thrown out for sure." Hermione suggested

"But we've got no proof!" said Harry. "Quirrell's too scared to back us up. Snape's only got to say he doesn't know how the troll got in at Hallowe'en and that he was nowhere near the third floor– who do you think they'll believe, him or us? It's not exactly a secret we hate him, Dumbledore'll think we made it up to get him sacked. Filch wouldn't help us if his life depended on it, he's too friendly with Snape, and the more students get thrown out, the better, he'll think. And don't forget, we're not supposed to know about the Stone or Fluffy. That'll take a lot of explaining."

While they were going back-and-forth Mila couldn't help but listen in and think. Maybe they were looking at it the wrong way. Whoever it was, they weren't idiots and they definitely didn't want to get caught so they probably wouldn't risk it unless they were hundred percent sure.

"What if you don't even need to ask Hagrid?" Mila mused out loud, causing them to look at her. "I mean, Fluffy isn't the only three-headed-dog right?"

"Of course!" Ron exclaimed louder than appropriate for a library. "Other people would know how to take care of animals like that. There must be a book or something for breeders. Maybe if we found it…"

He trailed off, looking around the library. There were hundreds, if not thousands of books in here.

"Yeah," Mila slowly nodded. "I'm sure we can start the mad search. After, exams."

The morning after Harry's revelation about Quirrell, notes were simultaneously delivered to Mila, Draco, Harry, Hermione and Neville at the breakfast table. Mila groaned at the contents of it.

'Your detention will take place at eleven o'clock tonight. Meet Mr. Filch in the Entrance Hall.

Prof. M. McGonagall.'

The day seemed to flash by in a second. Mila could have sworn that one moment she was eating a bagel for breakfast and a second later she was making her way with Hermione to the Entrance Hall. They were early enough that only Filch and Draco stood around waiting for them along with Harry and Neville to arrive.

"I see you can barely contain your excitement for tonight," Mila grinned, closing the distance.

"Funny," Draco muttered dryly, staring at Hermione. Mila sighed at the sudden tension in the air between them.

"Guys, please, let's just get over this without fighting," Mila half pleaded.

"I'm not the problem here," Draco retorted, shifting from leg to leg.

"Hey!" Hermione hissed out at the same time as Mila sarcastically said "Weeeeeeeell…"

"Quiet!" Filch barked out, silencing them.

'Such a wanker.' Mila mouthed and gave thumbs up enthusiastically, making both Hermione and Draco snort in amusement.

"What was that?" Filch asked, hearing them. Mila looked at him innocently.

"I just yawned...sir."

"Don't do that again." He ordered with a stomp of his foot.

Once Harry and Neville arrived, Filch lit up a lamp and lead them outside.

"I bet you'll think twice about breaking a school rule again, won't you, eh?" He leered at them. "Oh, yes...hard work and pain are the best teachers if you ask me ... It's just a pity they let the old punishments die out ... hang you by your wrists from the ceiling for a few days, I've got the chains still in my office, keep 'em well oiled in case they're ever needed ... Right, off we go, and don't think of running off, now, it'll be worse for you if you do."

As they marched off across the dark grounds, Mila and Draco shared a couple of looks of confusion. The note didn't specify what kind of detention it was, but Mila assumed that it would be in the castle. So did Draco, and from the looks of it so did everyone. Well maybe not Neville. She had no idea what he was thinking, other than having an apparent determination to sniffle every five seconds.

"Is that you, Filch? Hurry up, I want ter get started." Hagrid's voice came out of nowhere, making her jump up a little. She was beginning to hate people that spoke up before showing themselves.

"I suppose you think you'll be enjoying yourself with that oaf? Well, think again, boy – it's into the Forest you're going and I'm much mistaken if you'll all come out in one piece." Filch gloated, seeing Harry's relief at the appearance of Hagrid.

"The Forest?" Draco repeated, freezing in his tracks. "We can't go in there at night – there're all sorts of things in there – werewolves, I heard."

The thought of stepping a foot inside the forest filled Mila with dread. The longer she looked at the darkness that surrounded the forest, the more she imagined that someone was watching them. Without realizing, she stepped closer to Draco. He glanced at her but didn't make a move to step away.

"That's your lookout, isn't it?" Filch cackled with glee. "Should've thought of them werewolves before you got in trouble, shouldn't you?"

Mila saw Hagrid striding towards them out of the dark, Fang at his heel. It didn't make her feel better that he was carrying his large crossbow and a quiver of arrows that hung over his shoulder.

"Abou' time," he spoke up. "I bin waitin' fer half an hour already. All right, Harry, Mila, Hermione?" Mila barely even nodded before Filch interrupted.

"I shouldn't be too friendly to them, Hagrid," He said coldly, "they're here to be punished, after all."

"That's why yer late, is it?" Hagrid, frowned at Filch. "Bin lecturin' them, eh? 'Snot your place ter do that. Yeh've done yer bit, I'll take over from here."

"I'll be back at dawn,or what's left of them," he added nastily, and he turned and started back towards the castle, his lamp bobbing away in the darkness.

Draco turned to Hagrid the moment he was gone.

"We're not going in that forest," He protested motioning to Mila and himself. She wished that it would be that simple, but they weren't in a place to argue.

"Yeh are if yeh want ter stay at Hogwarts," Hagrid responded. Mila frowned at the sudden icy tone in his voice. He never used it towards them. "Yeh've done wrong an' now yeh've got ter pay fer it."

"But this is servant stuff, it's not for students to do. I thought we'd be writing lines or something. If my father knew we were doing this, he'd-"

"– tell yer that's how it is at Hogwarts," Hagrid growled. "Writin' lines! What good's that ter anyone? Yeh'll do summat useful or yeh'll get out. If yeh think yer father'd rather you were expelled, then get back off ter the castle an' pack. Go on!"

Draco didn't move, choosing to stare at him furiously instead. She knew why he hesitated to do as Hagrid said. She had no doubt that if Lucius found out not only about the detention but the way that Draco was talked to, he would take issue.

"Draco, please," Mila pleaded quietly and tugged his arm to get his attention. She didn't want this to escalate. Lucius didn't want them to go to Hogwarts in the first place, if he heard they were mistreated he might want to transfer them to Durmstrang. Draco glanced at her and sighed, giving in. Mila couldn't help but notice Harry's mouth open in apparent shock, but it didn't last long.

"Right then," Hagrid spoke seeing that Draco didn't protest further, "Now, listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight an' I don' want no one takin' risks. Follow me over here a moment."

He led them to the very edge of the Forest. Holding his lamp up high he pointed down a narrow, winding earth track that disappeared into the thick black trees. A light breeze lifted their hair as they looked into the Forest.

"Look there," said Hagrid, "see that stuff shinin' on the ground? Silvery stuff? That's unicorn blood. There's a unicorn in there bin hurt badly by summat. This is the second time in a week. I found one dead last Wednesday. We're gonna try an' find the poor thing. We might have ter put it out of its misery."

The moment Mila saw the silvery gooey substance on the ground, she had to turn her gaze away in fear of throwing up. Gulping, she tried to focus on anything else as her heart sped up drastically. Suddenly she felt colder than ever before and her legs turned jelly, locking in at her knees. She shouldn't have stopped Draco.

"And what if whatever hurt the unicorn finds us first?" Even Draco sounded fearful.

"There's nothin' that lives in the Forest that'll hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang," said Hagrid. "An' keep ter the path. Right, now, we're gonna split inter two parties an' follow the trail in diff'rent directions. There's blood all over the place, it must've bin staggerin' around since last night at least."

Mila breath caught in her throat. Why was he splitting everyone up? He can't be in two places at once! She had to leave. To get the hell out of here, damn the consequences. But she couldn't move, no matter how much she wanted to.

"I want to be with Mila. And the dog," Draco interjected quickly, looking at Fang's long teeth.

"All right, but I warn yeh, he's a coward,"Hagrid shrugged. "So me, Harry an' Hermione'll go one way an' Draco, Mila, Neville an' Fang'll go the other. Now, if any of us finds the unicorn, we'll send up green sparks, right? Get yer wands out an' practise now – that's it – an' if anyone gets in trouble, send up red sparks, an' we'll all come an' find yeh – so, be careful – let's go."

She watched Hagrid speak, saw him explain stuff, but she didn't understand half of the things he said. She couldn't focus on the meaning of the words, her mind was racing too fast. She could feel that thoughts were rushing through her, but at the same time it was dead silence.

"Mila...Mila!" She looked up, focusing on Draco's concerned face that was closer to hers than she remembered it being. "We need to go. Get over with it."

She nodded. Yes they needed to go, she agreed to it, but her legs didn't budge. Hagrid's group was gone and they were alone apart from Neville and Fang.

"Look at me," Draco commanded, making her frown. Wasn't that what she was doing? "Do you trust me?"

Mila nodded instinctively. Of course she trusted him. More than anyone in the world.

"We're fine okay? It's just a forest and you got me here. Trust me."

"Yeah...okay." She breathed out shakily. After another few deep breaths, she finally took a trembling step further into the forest. Her fingers grasped onto his arm and didn't let go.

"You mutter a word of this to anyone, Longbottom, and a hex will be the least of your worries." Draco growled to Neville's direction, not that he needed to scare the boy who looked near passing out as well.

Mila didn't let go of Draco as they made their way, even when her heartbeat started to settle. They hadn't found more blood so far which helped. But still, there was a deep dread and anxiety settled in the pit of her stomach which threatened to rise up if so much as a twig snapped near them. Draco was quiet for the majority of their walk, unless he had to call Fang from running off too far or to order Neville to hurry up.

A loud crunching sound nearby got Mila to harshly jerk at the noise. Her eyes darted from tree to tree trying to find the source of the sound but all she could find was just shadows. Fang let out a loud whimper and dashed between the trees. They waited for him to return but they were met with silence. Draco groaned.

"You gotta be kidding me." He pointed his wand and stepped to see where he ran off.

"Draco!" Mila hissed but it was no use, he didn't stop. She glanced at Neville who had his hands wrapped tightly around himself, not even holding his wand. He was as much use as the damned dog was.

Draco emerged from the trees after what felt forever and brushed past Neville with Fang hot on his trail. Neville who had his back turned to him, let out a scream the moment Draco touched him and if the situation was less dire, Mila would have been amazed at his speed of pulling a wand and shooting red sparks into the sky.

"You moron! It's just me!" Draco swore once the sparks died out. They caught him and Mila off guard.

"Sorry! Sorry! I-" Nevile wailed covering his ears.

"It's fine, just, calm down." Mila frowned trying to get him to stop. She didn't want to attract some creature's attention.

"Wha' happen?" Hagrid's booming voice echoed through the forest before Mila could even see him.

"Malfoy! He t-touched me!" Neville exclaimed near tears at the sight of Hagrid.

"Did not!" Draco glared at him, making him shrink further into himself.

"Mila?" Hagrid turned to her in question.

"Uh...Fang, he ran off and Draco went to find him and then once he came back he brushed against Neville or something. He got spooked."

"I see. Wel' bes' be joinin the others. Follow me,"

After following Hagrid off the trail and trying her best to not get caught on any sharp bushes or fall at the uneven ground, Mila saw the rest of the group.

"Mila, you okay? We saw the sparks." Hermione questioned the moment Mila stepped from Hagrid's shadow. Mila nodded but didn't say anything, she just wished it would be over.

"We'll be lucky ter catch anythin' now, with the racket you two were makin'. Right, we're changin' groups – Neville, you stay with me an' Hermione, Harry, you go with Fang an' Mila and this one. I'm sorry," Mila could hear him add in whisper to Harry. Everyone could. "but he'll have a harder time frightenin' you, an' we've gotta get this done."

So Milla followed Harry who set off into the heart of the forest leading them. They walked for nearly half an hour, deeper and deeper into the forest, until the path became almost impossible to follow because the trees were so thick. Halfway they found a new trail of blood and it only seemed to be getting thicker. There were splashes on the roots of a tree, as though the poor creature had been thrashing around in pain close by. Mila tightly pressed her hand over her mouth and nose, trying to suppress her gag reflex. After stumbling into Draco for the fourth time, he seemed to have given up and lead her in front of him.

"Look –" Harry murmured, holding out his arm to stop them. Something bright white was gleaming on the ground. Mila reluctantly followed them to whatever it was. She wished she hadn't.

It was the unicorn all right, and it was long slender legs were stuck out at odd angles where it had fallen and its mane was spread pearly white on the dark leaves. Mila took a step backwards, and another but the ground wasn't even and she ended up falling down. Not that she cared. Her vision blurred as she desperately tried to back off, get that god awful image out of her head. There wasn't enough air for her, she couldn't stop coughing and her chest kept constricting. It was dead. Dead. Dead. And she'll be too if she didn't get out of here. Someone was shouting her name, but she didn't care. All she could do is wheeze and stare at the damn dead thing on the floor.

Only it wasn't alone. A scream pierced through the air. It took longer than it should of had for her to realise that she was the one that shrieked. A hooded figure came crawling across the ground like some stalking beast. It reached the unicorn, it lowered its head over the wound in the animal's side, and began to drink its blood.

Mila felt someone tugging her, trying to pull her further away, but she couldn't budge. Her legs felt frozen and she couldn't help but watch as Harry crumpled to the floor. She heard what sounded like an explosion or a firework zoom up into the air. She blinked again, as if in doubt, when a centaur appeared in her field of vision. Maybe she was going crazy. But then again Harry spoke to it. The tugging on her arms was getting annoying so she finally turned to the source of it. It was Draco. He was shaking her shoulder with one hand while holding his wand in the other. He looked scared and relieved at the same time.

"Can you stand?" He asked, his gaze switching between her and the centaurs. She looked back at them and frowned. She only saw one and now there were more. At least they blocked her view of the dead unicorn.

"Mila!" He called out when she didn't answer immediately.

"Yeah," Her voice cracked. She shifted and tried to stand up but her legs still felt like jelly. She would have tumbled back down on the ground if Draco didn't grab hold of her arm to steady her. Her cheeks flushed in embarrassment and she was grateful that he didn't say anything to tease her.

"Are you two okay?" One of the centaurs asked approaching them.

"Fine." Draco replied. "Right Mila?"

She only nodded.

"That's good. Come we'll walk you back to Hagrid. It is not safe for young students to be wandering the forest at night."

The walk back passed in the blur. She kept close to Draco and even if she wanted she was too exhausted to listen and follow the conversation. She just wanted to get back into the bed and forget everything that happened today. She could already feel the embarrassment of freaking out creeping in. She was a Gryffindor, she was meant to be brave but tonight just showed how she was anything but that. She should have been better. To make it worse, Draco was there to witness it. How was he ever going to look at her and not see that?

By the time they all made their way back to their House's Common Rooms, Mila was absolutely done with the day. So seemed everyone else, even her and Hermione didn't talk much. Ron had fallen asleep in the Common Room waiting for their return. Mila barely spared him a glance as she passed him to get to the stairs.

"Mila, wait!" Hermione called out, making her freeze halfway. "We need to talk about this."

"Just tell me tomorrow. I'm beat,"

Hermione must have seen something on her face because she didn't protest again.

"Okay. Hope you feel better in the morning. I won't be long."

With a small wave, Mila left them to their own devices. All the girls were already asleep by the time she made it to her bed. She fought the urge to just sleep and reluctantly changed into her pajamas. Sleeping twice in a row in her uniform was beneath even her.

The moment Mila settled into the bed, Margo jumped on top of the bed and made her way on top of her chest. She meowed and headbutted Mila's chin a couple of times before fully lying down with a slow purr. Mila smiled slightly and petted her, noticing that her arm was still slightly shaky. While lying on the back wasn't the most comfortable position, Mila didn't have the heart to move her.

"Night girl." She whispered and watched her before sleep overtook her.


	11. Chapter 11

For what it was worth, the exams flew in a breeze. The days prior, Mila had imagined they would be the hardest thing she would ever have to do. It took half a day to shatter that illusion. The theoretical aspect of the exams was uncomfortable, especially in the sweltering heat. For Mila, the practical parts were a child's play. Professor Flitwick called them one by one into his class to see if they could make a pineapple tap-dance across a desk. Professor McGonagall watched them turn a mouse into a snuffbox — points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was but taken away if it had whiskers. The only subject that made her nervous was Potions. Her hands shook slightly as she stirred the Forgetfulness potion while Professor Snape was watching her every move. She could feel him judging her by which made her flustered and she barely remembered to mutter 'oblivisci' right before leaving the potion to brew for exactly fifty-three minutes and twelve seconds. The potion did turn into an orange shade like it was meant to, but the lack of any expression from Professor Snape as she submitted made her second guess herself.

"I flunked it. I can feel it. You didn't see the look he was giving me." Mila groaned once they were released from their last exam which was History of Magic. An hour of answering questions about batty old wizards who'd invented self-stirring cauldrons was something she never wanted to again.

"If you flunked it, none of us stand a chance," Ron rubbed his wandered down to the lake and flopped under a tree. Mila noticed Fred, George, and Lee Jordan tickling the tentacles of a giant squid which was basking in the warm shallows as she sat down as well.

"I'm actually surprised. I thought it was going to be harder." Hermione joined in, stretching happily. The only person who seemed less than pleased was Harry.

"You alright?" Mila asked as he rubbed his forehead once again. She noticed that over the week he kept touching his forehead more and more.

"I wish I knew what this means!" He burst out angrily. "My scar keeps hurting, it's happened before, but never as often as this."

They all fell into silence for a moment, not really knowing how to respond.

"Go to Madam Pomfrey," Hermione suggested quietly, plucking the grass.

"I'm not ill," Harry shook his head. "I think it's a warning. It means danger's coming."

"Maybe it's the exams. It was the first time we did proper exams and it was stressful enough," Mila shrugged, squinting as she looked at him.

"Harry, relax, they're right, it's probably nothing. Besides, the Stone's safe as long as Dumbledore is around. And anyway, we've never had any proof Snape found out how to get past Fluffy. He nearly had his leg ripped off once, he's not going to try it again in a hurry. And Neville will play Quidditch for England before Hagrid lets Dumbledore down."

Mila fought the urge to roll her eyes. They still didn't have any proof of who it was trying to go past Fluffy. Just that they haven't tried again.

Harry suddenly jumped to his feet, startling everyone.

"Where're you going?" Ron asked, shielding his eyes with his hand.

"I've just thought of something," Harry muttered, picking up his backpack. "We've got to go and see Hagrid, now."

Mila and Hermione shared a look and grabbed their bags.

"Why?" Hermione called out as they half ran to catch up with him.

"Don't you think it's a bit odd," Harry responded, scrambling up the grassy slope, "that what Hagrid wants more than anything else is a dragon, and a stranger turns up who just happens to have an egg in his pocket? How many people wander around with dragon eggs if it's against wizard law? Lucky they found Hagrid, don't you think? Why didn't I see it before?"

"What are you talking about?" said Ron, but Harry, sprinting across the grounds toward the forest, didn't answer. Finally, they could see Hagrid sitting in an armchair outside his house; his trousers and sleeves were rolled up, and he was shelling peas into a large bowl.

"Hullo," he said, smiling. "Finished yer exams? Got time fer a drink?"

"Yes, please," said Ron, but Harry cut him off.

"No, we're in a hurry. Hagrid, I've got to ask you something. You know that night you won Norbert? What did the stranger you were playing cards with look like?"

"Dunno," Hagrid replied casually. "he wouldn' take his cloak off."

He saw the four of them look stunned and raised his eyebrows.

"It's not that unusual, yeh get a lot o' funny folk in the Hog's Head - that's one o' the pubs down in the village. Mighta bin a dragon dealer, mightn' he? I never saw his face, he kept his hood up."

Harry sank down next to the bowl of peas. Mila scrunched her nose and continued standing.

"What did you talk to him about, Hagrid? Did you mention Hogwarts at all?"

"Mighta come up," said Hagrid, frowning as he tried to remember. "Yeah... he asked what I did, an' I told him I was gamekeeper here...He asked a bit about the sorta creatures I look after ...so I told him... an' I said what I'd always really wanted was a dragon ...an' then... I can' remember too well, 'cause he kept buyin' me drinks...Let's see... yeah, then he said he had the dragon egg an' we could play cards fer it if I wanted...but he had ter be sure I could handle it, he didn' want it ter go ter any old home... So I told him, after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy..."

Mila groaned and looked up at the sky, thinking of the implications this could have if the wrong ears heard that. This was quickly turning into the worst case scenario they could imagine.

"And did he - did he seem interested in Fluffy?" Harry asked, trying to keep his voice calm.

"Well- yeah- how many three-headed dogs d'yeh meet, even around Hogwarts? So I told him, Fluffy's a piece o' cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus' play him a bit o' music."

Hagrid suddenly looked horrified.

"I shouldn'ta told yeh that!" he blurted out. "Forget I said it! Hey - where're yeh goin'?"

They didn't speak to each other at all until they came to a halt in the entrance hall, which seemed very cold and gloomy after the grounds.

"We've got to go to Dumbledore," Harry spat out "Hagrid told that stranger how to get past Fluffy, and it was either Snape or Voldemort under that cloak — it must've been easy, once he'd got Hagrid drunk. I just hope Dumbledore believes us. Firenze might back us up if Bane doesn't stop him. Where's Dumbledore's office?"

As much as Mila didn't want to incriminate her favourite professor, she had no choice. What if they were actually right and her judgment was clouded? She couldn't risk everyone's safety for one person. So she didn't argue as they looked around as if hoping to see a sign pointing them in the right direction. They had never been told where Dumbledore lived, nor did they know anyone who had been sent to see him.

"We'll just have to -" Harry began, but a voice suddenly rang across the hall.

"What are you four doing inside?" It was Professor McGonagall, carrying a large pile of books.

"We want to see Professor Dumbledore," Hermione spoke up rather bravely.

"See Professor Dumbledore?" Professor McGonagall repeated, as though this was a very fishy thing to want to do. "Why?"

"It's sort of secret," Harry said, but he wished at once he hadn't, because Professor McGonagall's nostrils flared.

"Professor Dumbledore left ten minutes ago," she responded coldly. "He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and flew off for London at once."

"He's gone?" Harry repeated as Mila felt her heart drop to the soles of her feet. It couldn't be a coincidence that Dumbledore disappeared when they needed him the most.

"Now?" Mila finally spoke up. She had no idea what to say, how to even process the increasing danger of the situation.

"Professor Dumbledore is a very great wizard, he has many demands on his time -"

"But this is important." Hermione protested. Mila noticed that she looked paler than she ever saw her.

"Something you four have to say is more important than the Ministry of Magic?"

"Look," Harry finally decided to throw out all caution. "Professor - it's about the Sorcerer's Stone -" Whatever Professor McGonagall had expected, it wasn't that. The books she was carrying tumbled out of her arms, but she didn't reach pick them.

Mila looked down at the pile of books on the ground but once nobody moved to pick them up, she reached down and gathered them up.

"How do you know -?" she spluttered. "Oh- thank you."

"Professor, I think -I know - that Sn - that someone's going to try and steal the Stone. I've got to talk to Professor Dumbledore." She eyed him with a mixture of shock and suspicion.

"Professor Dumbledore will be back tomorrow," she said finally. "I don't know how you found out about the Stone, but rest assured, no one can possibly steal it, it's too well protected."

"Tomorrow? What, is he flying on a broom? It doesn't take that long to get there," Mila asked curiously.

"Not that it concerns you, Miss Rosier," Professor McGonagall bit out but then hesitated, her voice softening. "But yes. Professor Dumbledore has his own...methods for things. Now I suggest you all go back outside and enjoy the sunshine."

Fat chance of that happening. The moment Professor McGonagall was out of earshot Harry spoke.

"It's tonight. Snape's going through the trapdoor tonight. He's found out everything he needs, and now he's got Dumbledore out of the way. He sent that note, I bet the Ministry of Magic will get a real shock when Dumbledore turns up."

"Wouldn't he be able to recognize Professor's Snape's handwriting though? He has been a teacher for a very long time." Mila threw in her own suspicion. While she had to admit that the evidence was mounting against him, she simply couldn't just close her eyes and blindly follow it without suspicion.

"Mila, we know you-"

Hermione gasped. Harry and Ron wheeled round. Mila felt a shiver go down her spine. Professor Snape was standing behind her.

"Good afternoon," He said smoothly. None of them could muster a response. "You shouldn't be inside on a day like this,"

"We were -" Harry began, with no idea of what he was going to say.

"You want to be more careful," Snape smirked. "Hanging around like this, people will think you're up to something. And Gryffindor really can't afford to lose any more points, can it? I imagine some of you can't afford to get into any mishaps at all."

Mila could feel his eyes on her, the last part being directed to her. She gulped. Once they turned to go outside, Professor Snape called after them.

"Be warned, Potter - any more nighttime wanderings and I will personally make sure you are expelled. Good day to you."

Mila watched him turn and leave in the direction of the staffroom. The moment they were alone, Harry turned to them.

"Right, here's what we've got to do," he whispered urgently. "We have to keep an eye on Snape — wait outside the staffroom and follow him if he leaves it. Hermione, Mila you'd better do that."

"Why me?" Both of the girls spoke in unison and glanced at each other.

"It's obvious," Ron shrugged. " Mila has an unhealthy obsession with him and Hermione can pretend to be waiting for Professor Flitwick, you know." He put on a high voice, "'Oh Professor Flitwick, I'm so worried, I think I got question fourteen b wrong...'"

"Oh shut up," Hermione rolled her eyes.

"I don't have an obsession!" Mila protested appalled.

"We don't have time for this," Harry sighed. "Ron and I will stay outside the third-floor corridor. Come on."

"This is never going to work," Mila sighed the moment Harry and Ron walked away

"What makes you think that?" Hermione asked, staring at the staffroom door.

"Just have a feeling," She mumbled looking around. The weather was too nice to be stuck on patrol duty. She wondered what Draco was up to. Probably more fun matters than this.

They didn't have to wait long until their plan fell apart. It only took about fifteen minutes until Snape opened the door.

"Miss Rosier, Miss Granger I was unaware that 'you shouldn't be inside on a day like this' had other meaning. What are you two doing here?"

"I - uh -we-" Hermione spluttered weakly.

"Hermione wishes to speak to Professor Flitwick about the exam. I'm just keeping company." Mila responded as she wrapped her arms around herself and focused on a spot on the floor. She might not have been the best liar, but she had practice on how to answer adults that reeked of authority.

"If that's the case, I will get him now for you," Professor Snape turned and closed the door in order to get him.

The moment they were out of his sight, Hermione dashed around a corner faster than Mila could blink. It took her a second to realise what happened and follow her.

"What the hell Hermione?!" Mila hissed once she caught up.

"I'm sorry!" She panted. "I just couldn't think of anything to say to Professor Flitwick and I panicked!"

Mila sighed. So much for the plan.

"You're a hopeless liar Hermione. Anyway. Let's go back to the Common Room and wait for the guys to return. It's too late to do anything else."

Hermione looked guilty but nodded in agreement. The moment they saw Harry and Ron step inside the Common Room, Hermione ran to them.

"I'm sorry, Harry!" She wailed. "Snape came out and asked us what we were doing, so I said we were waiting for Flitwick, and Snape went to get him, and we panicked, I don't know where Snape went."

Mila frowned and made a face at the 'we' part. It was a hundred percent her.

"Well, that's it then, isn't it?" Harry sounded defeated. They all turned to stare at him. He was pale and his eyes were glittering.

"I'm going out of here tonight and I'm going to try and get to the Stone first."

"You're mad!" Ron protested.

"You can't!" Hermione agreed.

"Hold the hell on. There are other teachers around! Let's not make drastic decisions!" Mila shook her head in disbelief. That was the biggest jump in conclusion that she ever witnessed.

"Besides! after what McGonagall and Snape have said? You'll be expelled!"

"So what!" Harry over shouted them all. Mila glanced around nervously to check if anyone could overhear them.

"Don't you understand? If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort's coming back! Haven't you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won't be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He'll flatten it, or turn it into a school for the Dark Arts! Losing points doesn't matter anymore, can't you see? D'you think he'll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor wins the House Cup? If I get caught before I can get to the Stone, well, I'll have to go back to the Dursleys and wait for Voldemort to find me there, it's only dying a bit later than I would have, because I'm never going over to the Dark Side! I'm going through that trapdoor tonight and nothing you three say is going to stop me! Voldemort killed my parents, remember?"

Mila felt the urge to sit down, but all she could do is stare at him in shock and try to process everything he said. That jumped from zero to one-eighty really fast. She was even more shocked to feel a sudden pang of anger course through her. Without a word, she turned around and stormed out. She heard them call after her but she ignored them.

Mila eventually found her way down to Slytherin. Her mood did not improve at all as she plopped down on one of the couches. She could feel eyes on her but she didn't bother to even look back at whoever was staring. The more she thought back to Harry's little speech the angrier she felt. For all she knew, maybe Voldemort killed her parents as well but she wasn't jumping through trap-doors without hesitation. She hated not knowing stuff, hated how lost and powerless she felt. Maybe they were in danger. Maybe they were imaging everything and everything is just a coincidence. Maybe she should go to an adult, someone way more capable to deal with this than first-year students. Maybe it was really up to them. She put her arm over her eyes and sighed. All she needed was peace and quiet.

It seemed that nothing was going her way this afternoon. She roughly pulled her arm away the moment she felt someone half kick her legs and squinted to see who she needed to shout at. It was Draco.

"Don't remember inviting you here." He commented casually.

"Piss off," She muttered and hid her face into her elbow again. She wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone right that moment.

"Jeesh Mila, don't be a drama queen, I was just joking."

"Hm," She hummed in response. For a moment Draco didn't respond at all and she started to think that maybe he did indeed leave.

"Come on, you can sulk upstairs without causing a scene."

Mila heard him walk off this time and was tempted to just stay there. A moment later she sighed and got up. She briefly looked around and realized that there were indeed quite a few people around to see her outburst. Great.

"Move," Mila grunted out once she made her way towards the Boys Dormitory where Draco was lazily sitting on his bed in the corner. He huffed but moved his legs to the side so she could plop down.

They didn't speak for a while.

"Draco?" She finally spoke as she glanced from the ceiling to him. He had random pieces of parchment and looked like he was doodling something on them.

"Hm?" He didn't look up from the pages.

"If you...knew something, something important and perhaps dangerous...would you do?" She tried asking without revealing anything. She didn't want to pull him into this mess. While she was sure he would have a kick out of the whole situation and come up with colourful teasing, if things were as bad as they suspected, she wanted him as far as possible from it.

"Tell father." He didn't hesitate for even a second.

"That's not an option."

"Of course it's always an option."

"But…" Mila hesitated. "What if you couldn't?"

"I don't know, tell you? Is this a trick question? Cause if you want me to boost your ego it isn't working." This time he did look at her with a raised eyebrow.

"No. It's... nevermind. Forget I said anything."

"Okay? Gryffindor is making you weird."

Mila had no option but to smile at that.

"You're late," Mila remarked from inside the room the moment she heard them whisper underneath the cloak, startling the three of them. If the situation wasn't as dire as it was, she would have laughed at the sudden appearance of three pairs of legs.

"Merlin's beard!" Ron cursed out of breath.

"Mila! What are you doing here?" Harry asked, surprised.

"Waiting for ye three to show up. Also, a small tip, if you want to be discrete maybe don't have full-fledged conversations under the cloak."

"I'm so glad you're here," Hermione half whispered as she threw off the cloak and closed the door behind her. They were faced with the giant beast in the room.

"How is Fluffy asleep? Did you see Snape go past him?" Ron asked not looking away from the dog.

"I'm not sure about anyone going past it, but I did cast the flute to play a melody and like Hagrid said, it put him, them, to sleep," Mila whispered back. She wasn't going to take the chance to accidentally wake the beast by talking too loud.

"I think we'll be able to pull the door open" Ron mumbled peering over the dog's back. "Want to go first, Hermione?"

"No, I don't!"

"Alright." He gritted his teeth and stepped carefully over the dog's legs. He bent and pulled the ring of the trapdoor, which swung up and open.

"What can you see?" Hermione asked anxiously.

"Nothing - just black - there's no way of climbing down, we'll just have to drop."

"I'll do it," Harry whispered with determination and swung his legs over the edge.

"You sure?" Mila asked, looking into what seemed to be an endless void. They had no way of knowing how deep it was.

He lowered himself through the hole until he was hanging on by his fingertips. Then he looked up at Ron and said,

"If anything happens to me, don't follow. Go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, right?"

They all nodded.

"See you in a minute, I hope…" With that, he was gone. Mila held her breath and waited.

"It's okay!" Mila sighed in relief hearing his voice. "it's a soft landing, you can jump!"

Ron jumped in instantly. Mila spared a glance at Hermione and followed suit, closing her eyes and jumping in. She felt the rush of air and then she was sitting on what felt like a large plant. That was strange. Hermione jumped in.

Mila gasped as she felt something wrap around her ankle. She barely made it out to be an actual plant.

"Guys!" She called out . Hermione had managed to free herself before the plant got a firm grip on her.

"Stop moving!" Hermione ordered them. "I know what this is — it's Devil's Snare!"

"Oh, I'm so glad we know what it's called, that's a great help," snarled Ron, leaning back, trying to stop the plant from curling around his neck.

"Shut up, I'm trying to remember how to kill it!" Hermione hissed.

"Well, hurry up, I can't breathe!" Harry gasped, wrestling with it. Mila wasn't doing any better. It tightly wrapped around her chest and she wished she took more interest in Herbology. If she came out of this alive, she swore to Merlin that she would make it her favourite subject.

The thing made its way up to her face. She could hear Ron and Hermione bicker but didn't bother to listen to it.

Her vision drowned into darkness. This was it. Then everything erupted into white light and the snares loosened. Wriggling and flailing, it unraveled itself from their bodies, and they were able to pull free.

"Lucky you pay attention in Herbology, Hermione," Harry commented as he joined her by the wall, wiping sweat off his face.

"Yeah," Ron agreed, "and lucky Harry doesn't lose his head in a crisis -'there's no wood,' honestly."

Mila chuckled, catching her breath.

"This way," Harry quickly changed the subject, pointing down a stone passageway, which was the only way forward. All they could hear apart from their footsteps was the gentle drip of water trickling down the walls. The passageway sloped downward.

"Can you hear something?" Ron whispered, breaking the silence.

They all paused. A soft rustling and clinking seemed to be coming from up ahead.

"Do you think it's a ghost?"

"I don't know... sounds like wings to me."

"There's light ahead - I can see something moving."

They reached the end of the passageway and saw before them a brilliantly lit chamber, its ceiling arching high above them. It was full of small, jewelbright birds, fluttering, and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door.

"Do you think they'll attack us if we cross the room?" Ron wondered.

"Without a doubt." Mila snorted in amusement. She would not be surprised if that was their luck.

She watched him as he took a deep breath, covered his face with his arms, and sprinted across the room but nothing happened. He reached the door untouched and pulled the handle, but it was locked.

Mila along with Ron and Hermione made her way across the room and tugged the door but nothing would budge and the unlocking spell didn't work.

"These birds... they can't be here just for decoration," Hermione looked back at the birds, deep in thought. They watched the birds soaring overhead, glittering - glittering?

"They're not birds!" Harry said suddenly. "They're keys! Winged keys — look carefully. So that must mean..." he looked around the chamber while the other three squinted up at the flock of keys. "... yes — look! Broomsticks! We've got to catch the key to the door!"

"But there are hundreds of them!"

Ron examined the lock on the door.

"We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one — probably silver, like the handle."

"That sure helps to narrow it down," Mila deadpanned.

Instead of jumping on a broomstick and soaring through the midst of the cloud of keys, Mila took a moment to think about it. If someone was in a hurry, they wouldn't be wasting time to chase after them. An idea popped into her head. Finally, she could use something that Lucius thought her.

Pulling out her wand, she flicked her wrist and cast 'Immobulus'. They keys fluttered to a slow stop and froze. Mila grinned, feeling quite proud of herself. It was easier to find the key once they didn't scatter around and within a couple of moments, Harry held the key firmly in his hand.

"That was bloody brilliant!" Ron exclaimed the moment he touched down.

"How did you do that? It's not on our course!" Hermione asked curiously while Harry unlocked the door.

"Lucius sometimes shows me a few spells," She shrugged in reply, trying to look casual. She didn't want them to know how much it meant to her.

"I have never been gladder that you're a Malfoy," Harry smiled. "Ready?"

The next chamber was so dark they couldn't see anything at all. But as they stepped into it, a light suddenly flooded the room to reveal an astonishing sight. They were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chessmen, which were all taller than they were and carved from what looked like a black stone. Facing them, way across the chamber, were the white pieces. The towering white chessmen had no faces. Mila shivered involuntarily. That was beyond creepy.

"Now what do we do?" Harry whispered.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" said Ron. "We've got to play our way across the room."

Behind the white pieces, they could see another door.

"How?" Hermione asked, nervously glancing around.

"I think," Ron hesitated. "we're going to have to be chessmen."

He seemed to be the most in dept for this part so the trio more than gladly followed his direction. The game progressed quickly and for the most part, they were in the lead. That was until they got caught in a corner and were faced with the queen's blank face. The eerie silence was creepy, to say the least.

"Yes..." Ron spoke softly, "It's the only way... I've got to be taken."

"NO!" Harry, Mila, and Hermione shouted in protest.

"That's chess!" snapped Ron. "You've got to make some sacrifices! I'll make my move and she'll take me — that leaves you free to checkmate the king, Harry!"

"But -"

"Do you want to stop Snape or not?"

"Ron -"

"Look, if you don't hurry up, he'll already have the Stone!" There was no alternative.

"Ready?" Ron called, his face pale but determined. "Here I go — now, don't hang around once you've won."

He stepped forward, and the white queen pounced. She struck Ron hard across the head with her stone arm, and he crashed to the floor. Mila squeezed her eyes shut, not being able to watch. She heard Hermione scream but she couldn't move, not until they actually won. Only once she heard the chess pieces shuffle and move did she reopen her eyes, but didn't dare to look in his direction. They didn't have time for her to freak out. So she didn't look back as she half ran through the door and up the next passageway.

"What if he's - ?"

"He'll be all right," Harry reassured, sounding as if he was trying to convince himself instead of convincing the two girls. "What do you reckon's next?"

"We've had Sprout's, that was the Devil's Snare; Flitwick must've put charms on the keys; McGonagall transfigured the chessmen to make them alive; that leaves Quirrell's spell, and Snape's…"

They stopped at the entrance of another door.

"Alright?" Harry whispered, hesitating.

Mila and Hermione nodded. They didn't have time to not be alright.

"Go on." Harry pushed it open.

A disgusting smell filled their nostrils, making both of them pull their robes up over their noses. Eyes watering, they saw, flat on the floor in front of them, a troll even larger than the one they had tackled, out cold with a bloody lump on its head.

"I'm glad we didn't have to fight that one," Harry whispered as they stepped carefully over one of its massive legs.

"Come on, I can't breathe." He pulled open the next door, both of them hardly daring to look at what came next — but there was nothing very frightening in here, just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing on it in a line.

"Snape's," Harry said. "What do we have to do?"

They stepped over the threshold, and immediately a fire sprang up behind them in the doorway. It wasn't ordinary fire either; it was purple. At the same instant, black flames shot up in the doorway leading onward. They were trapped. If Mila wasn't as frightened as she was, she would be impressed. Fangirling in fact.

"Look!" Hermione caught their attention and seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles.

Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,

Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,

One among us seven will let you move ahead,

Another will transport the drinker back instead,

Two among our number hold only nettle wine,

Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.

Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,

To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:

First, however slyly the poison tries to hide

You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;

Second, different are those who stand at either end,

But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;

Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,

Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;

Fourth, the second left and the second on the right

Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.

"Brilliant." Mila breathed out, not able to hide her awe. She re-read the roll twice and looked at the bottles. She absolutely loved the puzzle. The answer was actually so clear and on your nose that she could have laughed.

"What?" She asked feeling their stares.

"I take it you want to solve this?" Harry asked, half amused.

"Oh Harry, I already solved it!"

"What? How?" Hermione gasped looking from the paper to the bottles.

"It's easy enough," She shrugged, "Professor Snape is using the 'answer is right under the nose' approach because if someone were to steal the stone, they'd expect the answer to be hard to find. These three are in fact poisons, two are wine, one allows you to go through and one gets us back through the purple."

"That's brilliant Mila," Harry complimented. "But there are three of us. How do we do this?"

"It's simple. Harry, you take the potion to pass the fires. Hermione, you take the one to go back and get us help. And I'll...uh..stay here."

"What?! I'm not leaving you behind!" Hermione exclaimed in protest.

"You have to, otherwise it might be hours before someone figures out that we are gone and need help. That's the only way and we don't have time to do anything else."

They fell into silence for a moment and Harry nodded slowly.

"You're right," He breathed out. "Who knows, I might get lucky and hold Snape off for a while,"

Hermione's lip trembled, and she suddenly dashed at Harry and threw her arms around him.

"Hermione!"

"Harry — you're a great wizard, you know."

"I'm not as good as you," said Harry, very embarrassed, as she let go of him.

"Me!" Hermione rolled her eyes. "Books! And cleverness! There are more important things - friendship and bravery and - oh Harry -be careful!"

Mila stood back, slightly awkward to witness such a moment. She still didn't really know where she stood with Harry but one look at him as Hermione let go of him, had her heart drop. With hesitation, she approached him and wrapped her arms around him. She felt him freeze for a second before he relaxed and returned the hug.

"You're going to be fine." She informed him in a low voice and felt him nod lightly.

She pulled away and glanced at Hermione who purposely was trying to avoid her gaze by looking at the ground. With a sad smile, Mila pulled her into a tight hug which was eagerly returned. The girls didn't need to say anything to convey the worry, the apologies, the promises of seeing each other again they both felt.

It was time to let go and finish this.

"This is it. Good luck and see you on the other side," Mila tried to flash them a smile as she passed them their rightful bottles. Hermione went first and took a long drink from the round bottle.

"It's not poison?" Harry asked anxiously.

"No - but it's like ice."

"Quick, go before it wears off."

"Good luck -take care -"

"GO!" Mila and Harry shouted in unison.

Hermione turned and walked straight through the purple fire. Mila watched as Harry took a deep breath and picked up the smallest bottle. He turned to face the black flames, hesitating for just a moment.

"Here I come," he breathed, and he drained the little bottle in one gulp. Mila nodded in encouragement and watched as he walked between the flames and disappeared, leaving her alone in the empty room, surrounded by flames. Looking around, she didn't think she could find her way out of this one so all she could do was sit on the cold ground and hope that her friends were going to be okay. The only peace of mind she could find was that Draco was safe and sound somewhere far up in the castle.


	12. Chapter 12

Mila lost track of time while she was stuck in between the fires. It was long enough for the place to get chilly to the point where she could see her own breath and of course the fires were lit in such a way that they wouldn't provide heat. At some point, she was ready to stick her hand in them just to see if they were actually real.

A sudden gust of what felt like wind interrupted her boredom and it disappeared just as fast as it came. Mila felt uneasiness surround the place as if something was watching, making a shiver run down her back and for the hairs on her arms to stand up.

" _Lumos_!" She flicked her wand spun around but there was nothing there. She held her breath in and listened for anything as her heart loudly beat in her ears.

Then, the atmosphere shifted, and everything felt normal once again. She frowned. It was as if whatever it was, just disappeared. That was... not normal.

She didn't have long to mull over it as the flames on the exit parted in half and concerned-looking Professor Dumbledore appeared from nowhere, with Madam Pomfrey hot on his tail.

"Merlin! Rosier! Are you alright?" The woman near shrieked seeing her there. Mila merely nodded in reply. Professor Dumbledore didn't even pause in his way, barging through the final flames and in through the doors.

"You stay here alright? Stay where it's safe!" Madam Pomfrey ordered strictly and ran after the Headmaster. If it was any other situation, Mila would have followed the orders, but Harry was in there.

She waited for about five seconds before silently following them. She flinched at the sudden burst of light in her eyes from the room. But that was nothing compared to what she saw.

The room had few remnant flames surrounding the pillars as if they were blocking any possible exit. Walking down a few steps, she saw to her surprise, a bundle of clothes that looked like something Quirrell would wear and a pile of dust. Oh. _Oh God._

Mila felt as if her world turned into slow motion as her gaze trailed from the pile of dust to Harry slumped on the floor, pale and injured. His forehead was covered in bruises and a trail of blood dripped down his cheek. His hand was bent at a weird angle.

Mila took a step back. No, this wasn't Harry. The Harry she knew was fidgety, full of sass and certainty, and held his emotions on his sleeve. The Harry she knew was _alive_. This...this was a body that looked like him, but it couldn't be him.

Mila couldn't focus on what their rescuers were talking about. She could feel herself zone out of her own body as her heartbeat increased tenfold. This felt like the Forbidden Forest all over again but this time she didn't have Draco by her side. She was alone and that was even more terrifying.

She let a pitiful wheeze and covered her mouth with her hand to silence herself, making it harder to breathe than it already was. Harry needed the help, she couldn't pull that away from him. Not now.

So she did the only thing she could do. She shifted her gaze away and looked for a distraction. She found one in the shape of a mirror. It stood there as if calling to her, to look at it for just a second. She did. Because the alternative is looking at one of her close friend's body.

Mila stood in front of it, and for a moment, it just reflected her. The image became cloudy until it transformed into two figures. She only ever saw them briefly in pictures, but there was no way to mistake them. Evan and Sodie Rosiers were standing in front of her; her parents. Mila frowned slightly, the mirror showed them younger, perhaps sixteen if she were to guess. Mila stepped closer to the mirror and saw her parents' face split into wide smiles. They looked so handsome. Her father was tall and lean with freckles scattered all over his face and his short hair untamed with the blonde curls. She could have sworn his brown eyes were full of mischief. Her mother stood beside him, their hands intertwined. She was just as tall and slender as him, with long light brown hair falling down her back and high cheekbones. They looked happy together.

Mila watched mesmerized as their gazes shifted from her to behind her. She was just about to turn to see if there was actually someone behind her but she didn't need to. Draco, Narcissa, and Lucius stepped right by her. She could almost feel the lightest weight in her hand as mirror Narcissa grasped her hand in her own. Her parents moved to stand beside Lucius. Lucius was midway to putting his hand on her shoulder when everything turned cloudy and the image disappeared.

A hand harshly pulled her back and away from the mirror. She blinked in confusion.

"Mila, it's time to go," Professor Dumbledore spoke in a calm yet demanding voice. There was no space to protest.

"Where's Harry? Is he okay?" Mila asked looking around. It seemed that there was no one but them. How long did she stand there?

"He is taken care of and will be just fine. We must depart as well, I believe your family is anxiously waiting for your return."

Mila wanted to say that her family was right there, in the mirror. She didn't.

Instead, she allowed Dumbledore to lead her back to the castle.

* * *

When the Headmaster said her family was waiting for her, he was not joking. The moment she was led to the direction of Professor Snape's office she had a sinking feeling she was in deep trouble. It was confirmed the moment she opened the door and found four pairs of eyes all stare at her arrival.

Professor Snape's face was completely black and he stood by the fireplace in the corner. In any other circumstances, Mila would wonder how can someone look so devoid of any facial expression but she was barely able to spare a glance at him because there in the small office sat Narcissa, Lucius and Draco.

"Mila!" Draco looked her up and down a few times, his posture stiff. Narcissa put her arm on his shoulder and gave a slight squeeze leaning closer to him. Professor Snape left his office without speaking a word to her.

"Draco, leave,"

"But…" Draco bit his lip, looking uncertain.

"Now." Lucius cut in.

"It's okay dear, we'll call you back."

The room felt as if Draco took all the oxygen and left with it. Narcissa rose from her chair and walked to where she stood.

"Are you alright dear?" She asked gently, putting her hands on Mila's cheeks.

Mila could only manage to nod before tears burned in her eyes and spilled over. She let out a small sob and wrapped her arms around Narcissa's waist, burying her head into the expensive dress material. Her sweet, light perfume soothed Mila's fried nerves.

"No need for tears dear, it's over." She ran her hand through Mila's hair and guided her to the chair. Mila wiped her face harshly, avoiding to look up. She didn't want to cry in front of Lucius.

"What the _hell_ , were you thinking Mila?" Lucius on the other hand wasn't as kind. His voice rang out cold and loud in the quiet office.

"I was just trying to help! I...We-" Mila meekly defended herself, keeping eyes cast to the floor. Lucius never needed to raise his voice to bring fear into people.

" _Help_? You're a child Mila. Even more, you are an inexperienced witch. I believed you to be smarter than to pick fights with grown wizards and beasts as a side hobby."

"I'm sorry I didn't mean-"

"Sorry doesn't undo what you did. You put your life in danger, you put the family's name in question and this is not the first time this year. We didn't raise you to lose your head in such foolishness." If it was possible, Mila could swear Lucius's every word had a sword that had the perfect aim to her heart.

"I knew letting you socialize with mudbloods and traitors was a mistake, but I entertained it only for you to throw everything to the wind and start to mindlessly accuse your professors of unspeakable things and go after dangerous situations without a single thought."

"I didn't...I thought it through."

Lucius slammed his fist on the table causing Mila to jump.

"No, you didn't think it through. If you put even the smallest amount of thought you could've come up with a less ridiculous idea than to go and play a hero!"

"I wasn't playing a hero. Gryffindors are meant to be brave…so I -"

"Bravery is worth nothing if you let it rule your head. It gets you killed." Lucius scolded, his voice raising.

"Lucius, that's enough. You can yell at her another day. She went through enough for the night."

He glanced at his wife and stayed silent for a moment.

"I'm sure your so-called 'bravery' will be very useful when you're scrubbing every inch of the Manor till it shines. No broom, no books, no magic, nothing for a month from the moment you step in the Manor. If your grades are anything less than Outstanding it will be for the whole summer."

"But...I... Narcissa!" Mila called out desperately to the woman who was uncharacteristically quiet. She never had any trouble standing up against him or saying no.

"No Mila, what you did was irresponsible and dangerous and you will not learn if your actions do not result in consequences."

"That's not fair! No one else is getting punished."

"Everyone else is not our concern and neither should it be yours."

Mila stayed silent. There wasn't anything she could say to get herself out of trouble. She just wanted to throw herself into bed and sleep for a month.

"It's late, you should go and rest." Narcissa broke the tension. It was as if she read her mind. Mila watched as Lucius and Narcissa looked at each other as if having a silent conversation among themselves before Lucius sighed and stood up.

"You can come home early with us if you would like," Narcissa added but Mila shook her head.

"It's okay, I'll come back with Draco,"

"Very well. I expect you to be on your best behavior. One step out of line and you'll be on the first train to Beauxbatons." With that, he was engulfed in flames and disappeared without a goodbye.

"Go straight to sleep Mila, it's been a long night."

"I will, goodnight Narcissa,"

"Goodnight honey."

The room felt much colder than it was moments ago. Mila turned around to leave as well.

When she opened the door, she found Draco not far. He looked up.

"Well? What did they say?" He asked curiously.

_'So they cast the silencing charm_ ' Mila thought as she shrugged her shoulders.

"Got grounded for a month." She smiled weakly. Looking behind him at the dimly lit corridors, her smile fell.

"Walk with me to Gryffindor?" She blurted out. _'Stupid. There's nothing there.'_

Draco frowned. She could tell he wanted to ask more questions.

He stared at her for a moment then shrugged his shoulders.

"I suppose."

* * *

_"Harry?" Mila called out. He stood at the end of the hall on the second floor. Mila frowned. He didn't reply or move. Didn't do anything to show that he even heard her. He just stood there._

_"Harry?" She called out, louder this time. There was no response. She began to walk towards him, but the more she walked, the longer the hallway stretched. She gulped. Could she even get to him?_

_Mila looked back, seeing the hallway stretch behind her into darkness. What the hell? She turned back. Harry stood right in front of her, his face inches away from hers. She recoiled so fast she almost lost her balance._

_Harry finally blinked and looked into her eyes, his gaze piercing through her soul. Then, a droplet of crimson red fell from his nose. It made a loud noise as it fell on the carpeted floor. Another drop fell soon after, followed by another. It became steady, like someone turned on the tap. It just wouldn't stop._

_His body crumpled to the floor. Mila could only watch in horror as his neck snapped in half, the crunching noise of bones breaking echoing in the hall. He never moved again. Mila could hear her heartbeat ring in her ears._

_"You could have saved me. Why didn't you?" Harry's voice echoed through the halls._

_"Did you want me to die? Did you want to have my friends that bad?"_

_"No!" Mila screamed, wanting to move away, to run the hell away but she couldn't. Her legs were frozen in place._

_"You were there. You let him kill me. It hurt. I cried for you to save me."_

_"I'm sorry I-"_

_"You never came. You left me there. I thought you were my friend."_

_"Harry…" Was she crying? She couldn't tell. Everything felt off._

_"Pathetic. That's what you are. You-"_

Mila opened her eyes to pitch darkness. She blinked a few times. Where was she? Her heart was beating out of her chest and she was freezing, shaking maybe. She wanted to wipe her face but her actions were sluggish, as if her body was catching up with her brain.

After a few minutes, the haziness went away and Mila could recall some parts of the dream. Enough to get the gist of it.

She closed her eyes, trying her best to remind herself that everything was fine, everyone was safe. Harry wasn't dead.

* * *

Mila took a deep breath and knocked on the wooden door the next afternoon. It only took a second before the doors swung open themselves, letting her go inside the Headmaster's office. She barely took a glance at the surroundings before she faced the professor.

"You wished to see me, Headmaster?" Mila asked as she approached his desk. Her hands stopped shaking a while ago but she kept them hidden inside her robes. He smiled and indicated for her to take a seat.

"I did indeed, my dear," His voice sounded light and soothing, causing her shoulders to slump and relax. "It has been a couple of long and challenging days, I wanted to know how you are doing."

"I'm fine, why does everyone keep asking me that?" Mila blurted out, feeling defensive. Eight people asked her that today, three of which she had never talked with before.

"Because what happened can be traumatising, especially for someone as young as yourself. People care about your wellbeing Mila."

"I appreciate everyone's concern but I am okay, I feel fine. There's no need to worry."

"I have no doubt that you are. Very like your mother I see. She was always fine no matter the mischief she got into." Professor Dumbledore chuckled lightly in amusement and a hint of fondness. It caught her attention.

"Professor, may I ask a question?" Mila asked before she could talk herself out of it.

"Of course dear,"

"It's about the Mirror of Erised."

"I will answer to the best of my ability dear,"

"The Mirror of Erised shows me what I desire the most right? I saw my parents but they...they were younger. I'm just curious as to why? It's not like I haven't seen pictures of them older. Lucius and Narcissa were there too, but they were older and Draco was the same as he is now so I don't understand." Mila shrugged her shoulders, leaving the part of her own image out.

"If I were to hypothesize, perhaps, you do not desire for them to fulfill a parental role because that role is already fulfilled by someone else. I'm sure you know that your parents and the Malfoys have been quite close ever since they were children."

Mila nodded in agreement.

"Friendships like that don't just disappear in the face of death. They leave a mark. A mark you observed so perhaps your deepest desire is to give the Malfoy's back what they lost. Mila, it is important to remember that at the end of the day the mirror is just a wistful daydream. It does not bode well to get yourself lost in it. Many powerful wizards and witches have wasted their entire lives in a fairytale."

"I see...Thank you professor. Is that everything?" Mila started to get out of the chair.

"Yes dear, I hope you enjoy your last few days."

"Thank you,"

* * *

"What happened down there?" Hermione asked curiously later in the day.

"Nothing. I don't really know, I wasn't in the room," Mila shrugged, lying through her teeth. It wasn't that she didn't want to tell her or didn't trust her enough to share the details. She just couldn't bring herself to speak the words, to explain how their best friend was as close to death as he ever could, couldn't describe how it felt looking at his body. The more time passed, the harder it was even to think about it. She chose not to, purposely making herself busy enough so her mind couldn't create the alternative scenarios of what could have happened. She didn't think she would ever be ready to discuss it, so she simply didn't disclose the truth. It was better for everyone.

"Oh, I see. I'm glad," If Hermione suspected anything, her voice didn't give it away.

"You have to come with us!" Hermione repeated for the fourth time.

"No." Mila replied, closing shut her luggage. They were in the girls' dormitory packing the last items for the trip home. The moment they heard that Harry was awake both Hermione and Ron jumped on her to come visit him, until she went upstairs to pack to escape them. Unfortunately, Hermione didn't want to drop it.

"What do you mean no? He's finally awake don't you want to see him?"

"Of course I do," She did, she really did. More than anything she wanted to replace the image of him lying motionless on the floor, inches away from death. But she couldn't. Not while he was in the Hospital Wing.

"Then come. Mila he saved our lives! At least visit him!"

"I will, but not while… I'll do it later."

"But-"

"Hermione!" Mila snapped harshly, cutting her off. She felt a pang of guilt as the girl's face dropped. "Sorry, I shouldn't have shouted. Just drop it, please."

She eventually did.

* * *

Mila walked silently beside Draco as they made their way to the end-of-year feast. Ever since Lucius and Narcissa ate her head off, he made an effort to be extra nice to her. He didn't even brag about how the Great Hall was decked out in the Slytherin colours of green and silver to celebrate Slytherin's winning the House Cup for the seventh year in a row.

She sat down between Harry and Hermione at the table. She spared a longer glance at the boy, she hadn't seen him since that night. He looked well, definitely much better than when she saw him last.

"How are you feeling?" She forced herself to ask. It wasn't that she didn't want to know, it was just awkward.

"I'm good, happy that Madam Pomfrey finally let me go. How are you?" He smiled.

_'I'm good. Just keep seeing your dead body whenever I think about it. It's great.'_ She smiled back and replied that she was good as well.

Fortunately, Dumbledore arrived moments later. The babble died away.

"Another year gone!" Dumbledore said cheerfully. "And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully, your heads are all a little fuller than they were ...you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts…"

"Now, as I understand it, the House Cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Gryffindor, with three hundred and twelve points; in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty-two; Ravenclaw has four hundred and twenty-six and Slytherin, four hundred and seventy-two."

A storm of cheering and stamping broke out from the Slytherin table. Mila was the only Gryffindor to join in the clapping but she didn't care. She smiled at Draco who looked over the moon with the victory.

"Yes, yes, well done, Slytherin," said Dumbledore. "However, recent events must be taken into account."

The room went very still. Mila frowned.

"Ahem," said Dumbledore. "I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes... "First — to Mr. Ronald Weasley..." Ron went purple in the face; he looked like a radish with a bad sunburn. "...for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor House fifty points."

Mila grinned at the sudden roars that erupted in the hall. Percy could be heard telling the other prefects, "My brother, you know! My youngest brother! Got past McGonagall's giant chess set!"

"Second — to Miss Hermione Granger... for the use of cool logic in a stressful setting, I award Gryffindor House fifty points."

Hermione buried her face in her arms and Mila could see the trail of tears on her cheeks. She pulled the girl into a side hug, almost bursting into tears herself. She couldn't describe how proud she was of her and knew that Hermione's confidence needed that extra recognition.

"Third — to Mr. Harry Potter…" Dumbledore announced. The room went deadly quiet. "... for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor House sixty points."

The din was deafening. Those who could add up while yelling themselves hoarse knew that Gryffindor now had four hundred and seventy-two points, exactly the same as Slytherin. They had tied for the House Cup. Dumbledore raised his hand. The room gradually fell silent.

"Fourth - to Mila Rosier…" Mila looked up so quickly she almost got whiplash. "For finding courage when faced between what is right and what is easy, I award Gryffindor House fifty points!" If it was possible the roaring became even louder. Mila's cheeks were burning bright red and she ducked her head down sheepishly.

"We all know there are all kinds of courage," said Dumbledore moments later quieting down the Hall once more. "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood up to yell and cheer as Neville, white with shock, disappeared under a pile of people hugging him. He had never won so much as a point for Gryffindor before. Mila stood up as well, clapping somewhat awkward as she turned to Hermione.

"What did he do?" Mila asked, raising her voice so that she could hear.

"Mila! We won!" Hermione screamed happily, either not hearing Mila or not caring enough to answer. " _We won_!"

"Which means," Dumbledore called over the storm of applause, for even Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were celebrating the downfall of Slytherin, "we need a little change of decoration." He clapped his hands. In an instant, the green hangings became scarlet and the silver became gold; the huge Slytherin serpent vanished and a towering Gryffindor lion took its place. Snape was shaking Professor McGonagall's hand, with a horrible, forced smile. Mila was happy, but she couldn't help but feel a pang of disappointment when she looked toward the Slytherin's table. Gryffindor's victory had every other table cheering for them even if they didn't earn the points in the proper way. But Slytherin had, they earned those points throughout the year yet no one cheered for them. She caught Draco's eyes and her disappointment grew. This wasn't fair.

* * *

Their exam results came late at night while the girls were packing the remaining of their stuff. Mila was so relieved to see she got the perfect marks in every class, especially Professor Snape's. Thank Merlin. She was in enough trouble as it was. A sense of pride bubbled in the pit of her stomach the more she looked at the results. Her teachers thought she was smart, they must have if they awarded her such marks. She liked that feeling. It was different than having her friends make remarks that she was good at a subject or Draco making fun of her for always having her head in the books.

After a quick comparison among the rest of the girls, it seemed that her and Hermione were the only girls at least in Gryffindor to achieve such high marks. She couldn't wait to see what Draco got.

"This is it, isn't it?" Hermione mumbled gloomily half an hour later.

"Yep," Mila agreed. The dormitory was mostly cleared out of everyone's belongings and it felt colder. Mila fiddled with the lock on her luggage trying to ignore the sudden lump at the back of her throat. She was looking forward to going home of course, she missed both Narcissa and Lucius dearly but the moment it was time to leave, she realized she didn't want to leave either.

"Promise you'll write,"

"Everyday," Mila cleared her throat harshly and blinked hard. This was stupid, she was just going home for a few months, and then she will be back, she should be too old for crying.

"You okay?" Hermione asked with a frown. Mila nodded, clearing her throat. She made sure not to meet Hermione's gaze directly for the remainder of their stay in Hogwarts.

* * *

The morning came faster than Mila had hoped that it would. She woke up early with a lump in her throat that she couldn't seem to get rid of. She propped herself with her elbows and looked around. The girls were still asleep and the room was basking in the sunlight. Mila sighed and glanced at where Margo was sleeping. The cat let out a long meow as Mila pulled her onto her lap. Eventually, Mila laid back down. She was going to miss this.

"You alright?" Draco grumbled out a couple of hours later when he sat down in the compartment. Luckily, none of the goons were there yet so they had it for themselves for now.

Mila nodded, looking out the window and stroking Margo's back. There were plenty of students walking past, dragging their luggage behind them.

"What you crying for?"

"I'm not crying." Mila defended herself quickly but her voice broke just as she said it.

"Merlin you are so weird,"

"Shut up, Draco" Mila grinned and if she had anything to hit him with, she would've.

It took a while to get back to King's Cross station and it was packed just as much with wizards as it was with muggles. Wordlessly, Mila and Draco navigated past the countless families reuniting until they found Narcissa and Lucius further away. While Mila and Draco hugged Narcissa, Lucius shrunk their luggage until they could fit into a pocket.

It was almost hard to believe that the first year was over. It was time to go home.


End file.
